Plastic Bans: A Threat or an Opportunity for Contract Packagers?

In today’s anti-plastic climate, contract packagers are no more immune than their customers to the increasing number of bans on single-use packaging, especially when their businesses are built around handling products in plastic packaging.

One such business is Maverick Packaging, Inc., a contract packager of liquid products in Elkhart, IN. Among its services, it provides hotels with amenity products in bulk containers for refillable dispensers and in small, single-size bottles. In October, California passed a bill that will directly impact a portion of its business—a ban on travel-size bottles used in hotels. The first phase, affecting larger hotels, is set to take effect in 2023, with significant fines for those establishments not in compliance.

Says DeAnn Devenney, Director of Sales and Marketing for Maverick, “We see it as both a threat and an opportunity. We've always supported dispenser replenishing liquids in mostly gallon-size, containers, so we're looking at options to support this side in a more sustainable offering. In addition to that, we have to transition to support the replaceable unit.”

California is most likely just first of many states that will adopt this policy; Devenney says she has heard that Canada and New York will soon be following suit. While it’s debatable whether larger, replaceable bottles or bulk options are more sustainable, or are even as hygienic, as single-use toiletries, there is no doubt the trend away from single-use plastics will continue.

Moving forward, brand owners will be looking to contract packagers such as Maverick that are innovative, adaptable, and flexible to help them find new solutions to replace single-use plastics or to handle new package formats. Therefore, now is the time to ask yourself, will plastic bans be a threat to your organization, or will they be an opportunity?