New packaging solutions for people, planet and business (Package-Heroes)

Public description of the results at the end of the project

The Package-Heroes project, funded by the Strategic Research Council of the Academy of Finland in 2018-2023, researched and developed environmentally friendly, consumer-acceptable and commercially viable food packaging solutions. The sustainable future of packaging was promoted in cooperation with companies, organizations, consumers and decision-makers. The project created a set of criteria for sustainable food packaging and studied the drivers and barriers to change and the necessary policy measures. The role of consumers in the transition phase was studied e.g. with the help of a consumer panel. The environmental effects of new packaging solutions were investigated, and the project played a significant role in the preparation of the EU packaging and packaging waste regulation (PPWR) in Finland. The research partners were VTT, Luonnonvarakeskus, LUT University and Åbo Akademi.

Public description of the goals at the beginning of the project

Package-Heroes project searches for packaging service solutions, addressing simultaneously food protection and the global, constantly increasing concern of plastic packaging waste. Annually, around 26 million tons of plastic waste is generated in EU, of which 59% comes from packaging. Simultaneously, consumer habits and needs are changing towards valuing environmental and welfare qualities, e.g. local food services. These global drivers offer great opportunities for the forerunners to reorient their business. Project engages business actors, public authorities, NGOs and citizen-consumers to co-create measures to overcome the above-mentioned challenges. We envision desirable packaging concepts, identify new consumption patterns, investigate biomaterial's scalability and assess environmental impacts. Finally, based on all generated knowledge we identify potential policy mixes in the Finnish national context to boost the formation of globally competitive business ecosystems.