U.S. Flexible Packaging Keeps on Growing Through Headwinds

Felton emphasized that the laws differ widely in structure and impact. “They all treat materials differently and they certainly all treat flexibles differently,” he said. “I see a good path forward in Oregon to address flexibles and how to get more of it back. California has a different approach.”2024 U.S. Packaging Market Breakdown: Corrugated, Flexible, Paperboard, and Other SegmentsFPA

He expects several additional states to pass similar legislation within the next few years, with FPA engaging closely in each.

On the recycling technology front, 25 states now explicitly allow advanced, molecular, or chemical recycling, now often referred to as non-mechanical recycling. Some of this permissive attitude is due to its classification manufacturing rather than waste management—a distinction Felton called essential for scaling film recovery and enabling recycled content in food-contact packaging. From a gut perspective, "manufactured" packaging is more palatable for food-contact products than "managed waste" used for the same purpose. 

But other states including Maryland, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, and Vermont are weighing restrictions or even bans (though no bans have occurred yet) that would prevent advanced recycling from counting toward recyclability or recycled-content targets.

“It’s important that advanced recycling can exist in the United States, whether it’s in a standalone law or part of extended producer responsibility,” Felton said.

California’s Senate Bill 343, governing recyclability claims and labeling, takes effect in 2026. Felton described it as an example of how state-by-state approaches can create compliance confusion. 

“There’s some incongruity between the EPR law and the labeling law,” he said. To avoid a patchwork of inconsistent rules, FPA and more than 40 other trade associations are backing the proposed federal Packaging and Claims Knowledge (PACK) Act, which would establish uniform national standards for recyclability, compostability, and reusability claims. This data signals where converters are investing and innovating, aligning with brand-owner sustainability goals and upcoming regulatory expectations.FPA

Recycled-content mandates are spreading as well. Five states—including California, Maine, New Jersey, and Washington—have enacted requirements for PCR content in certain packaging types. For now, flexible films remain mostly exempt, but Felton warned that “it’s only a matter of time” before some states expand those mandates.

Felton pointed to several bipartisan measures in Congress—the Recycling Infrastructure and Accessibility Act, Recycling and Composting Accountability Act, and the combined STEWARD and CIRCLE Acts—as positive steps toward improving national recycling infrastructure. He described them as “good bipartisan, common-sense public policy” that could help modernize collection systems and expand recycling access.Challenges to flexible packaging paired with opportunities for solutions. FPA

Felton characterized flexible packaging as “a hard-to-recycle product” in the current state of American recycling infrastructure, and it remains constrained by limited curbside access, nascent store drop-off networks, and immature end markets. He argued that the industry must show “proof of concept and scalable solutions” for collection, sorting, and reuse. “Recycling’s not recycling if something doesn’t happen with that thing that got recycled to become something else,” he said.

To that end, FPA is collaborating with the newly formed Flexible Film Recycling Alliance (FFRA), the increasingly omnipresent PRO Circular Action Alliance (CAA), and other groups to expand recovery infrastructure and develop viable markets for reclaimed material. FFRA, launched in 2024, has completed its first year of initiatives focused on data collection and consumer education. "Industry continues to grow despite packaging and plastic backlash. Need to continue to work on closing the circularity loop," Felton said today.FPA

Even amid policy uncertainty and public scrutiny, the flexible packaging industry remains healthy, innovative, and indispensable to consumer goods, Felton says. 

“We’re all in this together,” Felton said. "Industry continues to grow despite packaging and plastic backlash. We need to continue to work on closing the circularity loop while promoting and protecting the value of sustainable flexible packaging," adding "the future is flexible."