Packaging Innovations 2025 review: “Fiberization” gathers pace amid incoming UK EPR regulation

Paper-based packaging is proliferating across the industry. “Fiberization” or “paperization” was one of the key trends highlighted at Packaging Innovations 2025 in Birmingham, UK, last week, as businesses prepare for new EPR rules.

The UK’s EPR scheme is intended to shift the responsibility and cost of packaging waste management from taxpayers and local authorities to businesses that use and supply the packaging. The first EPR payments will be required between October and December this year. 

At the trade show, we spoke with industry experts at ProAmpac, Mondi, Colpac, ATS-Tanner and EP Group, as these companies presented their latest products tapping into demand for fiber-based packaging.

Maddison says that the availability of curbside recycling allows customers to engage with the recycling chain.ProAmpac concentrated on its fiberized products and moisture protect series, targeting recyclability and PCR content. 

“Our customers want easy recycling to really drive that circular economy,” said Lynsey Maddison, product development director at ProAmpac. 

“But the packaging must still be convenient for use. We want our products to still deliver all of the required frontiers. So whether it’s shelf life, packaging strength, or ease of opening, we’re building that into all of the solutions we have on offer.”

Maddison told us that fiberization is something that ProAmpac’s customers “really understand,” and that the availability of curbside recycling makes it a suitable opportunity for customers to engage with the recycling chain.

Meanwhile, Mondi showcased its Ad/Vantage Stretch Wrap and Functional Barrier Paper range. We spoke to Bartosz Babicz, product manager Stretch Wrap about the industry’s demand for fiber-based packaging.

“Ad/Vantage Stretch Wrap is a pallet wrapping solution that replaces traditional plastic wrapping with paper. It offers higher pallet stability and contrary to plastic film, you can print on the paper. You can print a logo or QR code or substitute traditional labels with printed labels, which leads to carbon savings,” said Bartosz Babicz, product manager for Stretch Wrap at Mondi.Mondi’s functional barrier paper range.

This fiber-based solution helps customers meet EU PPWR and UK EPR requirements, he added.

Paperboard recycling

Talia Goldman, ESG director at Colpac, explained that the drive toward fiberization highlights the power of paperboard as a renewable, traceable, and highly recyclable material that offers a sustainable alternative in packaging.

“Every material has its place in the packaging ecosystem, but there is a real power to paperboard, and we are seeing this growing wave of fiberization. It’s been happening for a very long time, but it’s definitely been in the zeitgeist at the moment.”

Goldman stresses that overcoming challenges like recycling contamination requires strong supply chain collaboration, policy alignment, and consumer education.

ATS-Tanner uses its new US-3000 banding machine for improved paper banding operations.“Food contamination is a key issue, highlighting the need for consumer education on removing food from packaging before recycling to increase the chance of the packaging being recycled. While these challenges can be overcome, it will require a lot of work.”

Paper bands and bags

ATS-Tanner showcased its new machine, the US-3000, which was launched at the end of last year and supports the transition to plastic alternative banding solutions. 

“We’ve come up with a better way of installing the material to do the banding on the machine. It’s far easier for the consumer to use that than it was on the older machines,” Mark Pugh, general manager at ATS-Tanner, told us.

Pugh highlighted that customers want to remove as much plastic as they can from their products. “We offer a good solution, an elegant solution, and we quite simply just use a paper band to hold things together.”

Across the show floor, EP Group presented its RePapaPac. Simon McMahon, head of marketing at EP Group, said that the bag is the first “truly reusable bag” because of the way that it’s produced. 

“It’s got much better tensile strength than most papers. It’s already become iconic on UK high streets with M&S and Morrisons.”EP Group presented its RePapaPac at Packaging Innovations 2025.

“We wanted third-party verification, so we worked with SGS to test the weight capacity up to 40 kgs.”

McMahon stressed that the paper bag’s low carbon footprint comes from its reusability. “It can be reused up to 50 times, which means that the carbon footprint immediately reduces when we pair that with the material itself and how the material is developed using certain fibers.”

“We’ve again had it verified and tested to a low carbon footprint versus other paper carriers — not just versus plastic.”

We took a closer look at how the UK’s EPR proliferated at this year’s Packaging Innovations.