Bart Devos explores 2020 packaging trends
Barrier properties, problem solving and sustainability: our CEO, Bart Devos, explores the principal packaging trends of 2020.
Sustainability
‘Sustainability and the use of recyclable and eco-friendly materials in packaging will undoubtedly remain key trends in 2020,’ says Bart Devos, AR Metallizing’s CEO. ‘The environmental impact of the packaging industry and sustainability of materials in general can be complex and can raise some interesting questions and debate. In 2020, we think that discussion across the industry in general will actually pick up: if we truly want a greener future for our planet, discussion, deliberation and collaboration will be pivotal to kickstart substantive change. Transformation won’t come from a sole company who has single-handedly ‘achieved’ a totally eco-friendly packaging product or solution. Instead, developments and progression will come from various players. In this respect we think that 2020 will be the start of an era where the industry has a focus on collaboration and high-level problem solving between various players,’ Bart adds.
Barrier properties
Looking internally, Bart is looking to explore even more eco-friendly barrier solutions for AR Metallizing’s holographic and metallized papers. ‘As a company, we always aim to keep pushing our products to new limits and continue to develop their eco-friendly characteristics – we don’t believe that this development can just stop – continued exploration is key. Going forward, this means looking at more complex and technical characteristics and really extending the reach of our product’s sustainability. In concrete terms, this will mean that we are looking at how we can offer water-based barrier coatings for our products. When we have perfected the science on these, it is something we would like to offer as an alternative to our solvent-based coatings, for brands who want to take eco-friendly packaging to the next level,’ adds Bart.
Ideally positioned for problem-solving
Sustainability is certainly a key trend in the industry for this year, but increasingly, the AR Metallizing team is looking to support new customers and partners with unique solutions to very specific problems – a movement we expect to continue in 2020 and one that may also positively affect other companies in the industry. ‘Generally speaking, we are getting more requests for very specific applications, perhaps where metallized paper hasn’t been used before because of a preference for another material, or simply because no one has tried it,’ says Bart. ‘It’s exciting to work on these projects because often we’re asked to solve a very specific problem for a customer or partner which can sometimes require some out of the box thinking or a totally new way of looking at the science of our products, their machineability or application,’ says Bart.