Jan/Feb 2026

Packaging World Jan/Feb 2026

Case/Tray Packing

New Line Runs Party Drinks and Pickle Potions

Specialty Blends runs three different PET bottle formats on a new line that culminates in a tray packing/shrink bundling system featuring the first application of single-point lane adjustment.

December 9, 2025

The new line is fully capable of handling three very different container formats.

Babybel Latest Brand to Join Paperization Trend

By replacing bio-based cellophane with recyclable paper, Babybel shows how large brands can reduce plastic at scale while maintaining quality, safety, and consumer appeal, stakeholders say.

November 24, 2025

High-volume production runs highlight the scale of Babybel’s global transition from cellophane to paper packaging.

Digital Transformation

How AI Is Rewriting the Rules of New Product and Package Testing

Virtual prototypes, e-commerce mockups, and rapid A/B tests now let brands gauge demand in days, not months. It's transforming how teams design, validate, and launch new products and packaging.

November 21, 2025

From plain pack stock image (left) to a (hypothetical) branded prototype, shown in context on a shower shelf (right), AI artwork and context images now take minutes, not weeks.

Sustainable Packaging

CPGs Reduce Packaging Weight by 5 MMt Since 2019, Report Finds

A joint industry report finds that companies are reducing packaging weight through lightweighting, redesigns, and material shifts while balancing recyclability goals and product protection.

November 14, 2025

Lightweighting continues to drive measurable progress in packaging reduction. Coca-Cola’s redesigned bottles, shown here across several brands, lower PET weight from 21 g to 18.5 g for key sizes, a 12% reduction expected to cut PET use by 3 megatons by 2025.

Controls & Machine Components

Linear Transport System Syncs 120 Axes for Ultra-fast Capping

A new cap applicator from Tetra Pak uses the Beckhoff XTS linear servo transport system to deliver 25,000 precisely sealed cartons per hour, tripling output over conventional portion-package cappers that run at 9,000/hour, while combining digital control with flexible, high-speed motion.

November 12, 2025

Tetra Pak® test packs with plastic caps glued on.

Colgate & Amazon Turned Recycling Data into Insight; Now Other CPGs Can, Too

Pilots with Colgate-Palmolive and Amazon helped shape Glacier’s new DataStream platform, a subscription tool launched today that lets CPGs verify recyclability performance and close the loop between packaging design and real sortation and recovery outcomes.

November 4, 2025

Glacier’s AI system identifies a Colgate toothpaste tube on a Material Recovery Facility (MRF) conveyor line. The system uses optical and material recognition to distinguish HDPE tubes from other plastics, verifying how often they are captured in the recycling stream.

Sustainable Packaging

With EMF’s New 2030 Plastics Agenda Targets, Signatories Pivot from Ambition to Scale

The Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s new 2030 Plastics Agenda, released today, turns lessons from earlier shortfalls into a pragmatic blueprint for scale. It aims to trade isolated ambition for collaboration, policy alignment, and systems change. Nearly a decade after setting (a maybe too) ambitious 2025 plastics reduction goals, global brands and CPGs are rethinking what real progress looks like.

November 3, 2025

Under the 2018–2025 Global Commitment, participating brands reduced virgin plastic use, tripled recycled content, and cut 775,000 tonnes of problematic packaging — avoiding the use of one barrel of oil every second.

Mondelēz Pilots 300,000 Cadbury Heroes Paper Tubs in Tesco

The international snacking company is testing the tubs for its mini chocolates as part of its broader push to cut virgin plastic and advance recyclable packaging across its brands.

October 29, 2025

The new paper tubs for its Cadbury Heroes assortment of miniature chocolates were developed in partnership with DS Smith over several years of R&D.

Fernway Cannabis Scales Automated Labeling Across State Lines

Faced with fragmented cannabis packaging regulations and manual labeling inefficiencies, Fernway turned to Paxiom’s dual-head carton labeler to maintain speed, precision, and premium quality across four states and counting.

October 22, 2025

Fernway’s Paxiom dual-head labeler applies regulatory and branding labels to opposite sides of premium cartons at up to 40 per minute.

Bagging & Pouching

Mespack Sets New Standard in Turnkey Packaging Solutions with a Premier Showcase at PACK EXPO

In Mespack's Booth W-0922, see a packaging line that produces up to 2,880 pouches per minute (from pouch forming and filling to cartoning and automated end-of-line), and get a live demonstration of the HMR Series, a carousel system for pre-made pouches.

September 25, 2025

Mespack Pack Expo 2025

Inspect/detect/checkweigh/x-ray

CASSEL Inspection to Spotlight Product Inspection Technologies at PACK EXPO Las Vegas 2025

Experience live demonstrations of metal detection, X-ray inspection, and checkweighing systems at Booth SU-35029.

September 24, 2025

Shark MultiSense Metal Detector

Bagging & Pouching

Charter Next Generation Launches GreenArrow Matte-Finish MDO-PE Print Film

See CNG's matte-finish machine-direction oriented polyethylene print film—designed to meet How2Recycle guidelines for store drop-off recycling—at PACK EXPO in Booth SL-17037.

September 24, 2025

Cng Matte Mdo Release Graphic Final Website

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