The winners of the 2026 edition will be revealed at the Sustainable Packaging Summit on 11th November.
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 MEET OUR 2026 FINALISTS 

Categories for commercialized products

Circular Plastics

Innovations aiding the transition to a circular economy in polymers. Technologies supporting recyclability, facilitating increased recycling rates or bringing more recycled plastic content back into new packaging.

1000-Litre PET Water Tank

CYPET Technologies (Cyprus)

Food-safe rPP

Prevented Ocean Plastic (UK, Indonesia)

O2Blox nylon-free PET oxygen barrier technology

Plastipak (Belgium)

TEGO® Res 1100 - The innovative co-binder for solventborne packaging inks

Evonik Operations (Germany)

Climate

Packaging innovations that drive resource efficiency, e.g. through downgauging or reducing the carbon footprint of materials, or reducing the overall climate impact of packaged product itself, without causing other unintended environmental impacts.

ComforLid with low carbon aluminum

Constantia Flexibles (Germany)

EcoCore® cap for Air Wick air freshner refill

Bockatech & Vestacy (Europe)

FlexPrep™ portion dispensing system

Sealed Air – CRYOVAC® Brand Food Packaging (US and EMEA)

Interpac 1250 cold corrugator

Interpac (Canada, Europe)

Swift®tak PM 4400 enabling cold corrugation production

HB Fuller (Germany)

Digital Transformation

Eligible for solutions supporting sustainable transformation in packaging through digital innovation, AI or connected packaging.

Data-driven packaging optimization platform

QuantiPack AI (USA)

Decision support platform

EcoSource Packaging Intelligence (UK)

Integrated platform for sustainability reporting at scale

Specright & Lorax (USA, EMEA)

National deposit return system for digital DRS

CLUBZERØ (UK)

QI suite - controlling and optimizing PCR

Resycure (Germany)

Driving the Circular Economy

Breakthroughs and innovations in recycling, sorting technologies, driving increase in recycling rates, or boosting use of recycled feedstocks in packaging.

Food-safe r-PP

Innovia Films (Global)

KandyKote® – Chappies Gum Wrapper for Mondelēz

SealGlobal.Co (South Africa)

Plastic-Free Morro™ coating for folded cartonboard

Xampla and Huhtamaki (Europe)

Ready-meal paperboard ovenable tray with Mater-Bi® coating

Novamont and CCM (Cooperativa Cartai Modenesi) (Italy)

STEINERT AI enables foodgrade tray recycling at Cirrec

STEINERT (Netherlands)

Renewables

Development or innovative use of bio-based materials (such as fibre-based or bioplastics) with significant positive impact or potential in packaging applications.

Ad/Vantage smooth brown semi extensible kraft paper

Mondi (Austria)

Fiber Box — Moulded fibre transport packaging for chilled seafood

PAPACKS® (Germany)

Holy Carp home compostable soy sauce fish

Heliograf, Vert Design (Australia)

Paper based pallet column locks

Mpact Corrugated (South Africa)

UPM Circular Renewable Black™ - bio-based, NIR-detectable, black pigment

UPM (Germany)

Reuse

Innovative solutions and innovative applications of reusable or refillable packaging systems.

Double Circular reusable 1 kg ice cream container

Xipa (Argentina)

EINFACH MEHRWEG Prefill

Sykell (Germany)

Pioneering reuse schemes using EcoCore® cups

Bockatech & partners (Europe, USA)

Reusable packaging for Telecom Logistics

KIUD & Telia (Estonia, Norway, Finland)

Sulapac Solid 2.0 biobased, dishwasher proof material for reusables

Sulapac & Hesburger (Finland, Lithuania)

Categories for cstart-ups with seed funding

Start Up - New Materials

Start-up technologies introducing innovative materials with positive environmental impacts that can be used in packaging applications.

Bio-based black pigments and inks

Living Ink Technologies & 100+ Accelerator (USA)

High barrier paper for flexible packaging

Nfinite Nanotechnology, Amcor (Canada)

Moulded fibre made from fallen leaves and bamboo

Z1RO Europe (France, Ukraine)

PET with –40°C to 220°C heat-stability range

Thermapet Technolgies (Singapore)

Seaweed-based recyclable and biodegradable high-barrier coating

Kelpi (UK)

Start Up - New Systems

Sustainable packaging formats and systems developed by start-ups.

AI-powered autonomous waste sorting system

Antfarm (Netherlands)

Decontamination technology for flexibles

COtooClean & Coveris (UK)

Fossil-free PP & PE at scale

Vioneo (Europe, China)

Swift and strong reusable boxes

KWiiD (Switzerland)

Categories for broader initiatives

Thinking Big

Initiatives, projects and collaborations that make an outstanding contribution to minimizing the environmental impact of packaging and its supply chain.

AI-enabled sustainable packaging with biomaterials

Colgate-Palmolive & Erthos (USA, Canada)

Ecotrace: industry-wide packaging traceability infrastructure

Polytag (UK)

Embalagem do Futuro® (Packaging of the Future) project

VANGEST, NERLEI CCI & INOVA+ (Portugal)

HolyGrail 2.0 value-chain consortium proving viability of digital watermarking technology

AIM - European Brands Association & partners (Denmark, Germany, Netherlands)

REPASYS – Reusable Packaging System

Pack4Food, FlandersFOOD, VIL, REUseLab, Colruyt, AlbertHeyn, Carrefour, Delhaize, Lidl, Aldi, Rotion, DeSter, MIVAS, Made & FostPlus (Belgium)

Categories for early stage research

Research & Development

Early stage research and development in materials, processes and technologies that have packaging sustainability applications.

CUBO logistics-optimised square cup

Greiner Packaging (Austria)

Bio-polymer coating for corrugated cardboard for food contact

Embalagem do Futuro® & Polytechnic University of Leiria (Portugal)

Net zero waste through reusable structural skeleton architecture

Serioplast (Italy)

PMA MAP technology: shelf-life extension system for fresh produce

Teagasc (Ireland)

UniLEAF acrylicfree flexo ink extender

Siegwerk Druckfarben (France, Germany)