Does AI have a role to play in circular packaging design?

The idea of packaging that becomes waste that is constantly recycled into new packaging in a loop is one of the most enduring sustainability concepts.

Since 2020, the CGF’s Coalition of Action on Plastic Waste has been working to make this circular economy a reality for plastic. Its ultimate aim is to prevent plastic waste ending up in the land or sea. And research released by the Coalition earlier this year suggests that AI could have a major role to play in achieving this goal of more sustainable packaging design.

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Experimentation is already underway

One of the biggest takeaways from the report, which was created in collaboration with Bain & Co, is that 30% of companies say they are already using AI in some way in their packaging life cycle. This includes everything from design optimisation and reducing the amount of material used through to end-of-life sorting and packaging traceability.

In fact, 70% of companies said that the greatest potential for AI in the packaging value chain was in design and optimisation. 65% said they felt AI could help with  packaging traceability and 40% said it could be used in reporting and compliance, including helping map where materials are lost in the value chain and - crucially - the reasons why.

Clearly, experimentation with AI is already underway in the packaging world as companies try to comply with new regulation around sustainability. But what’s most interesting is where companies see the opportunity to introduce this tech, eg design and optimisation, traceability, material loss. Because this gives us a good indication of the areas where businesses see an opportunity to be more sustainable in their packaging decisions but may be struggling to find solutions.

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Overcoming circular packaging design pain points

Regulation may ask for it, companies may see the opportunity for it, but there’s a reason that creating a circular economy for packaging is a challenge that hasn’t yet been cracked.

In its report, the Coalition and Bain & Co highlighted five big circularity pain points:

● Overcoming technical limitations on new packaging materials

● Making the packaging portfolio recyclable, and actually recycled

● Incorporating and getting access to more recycled content

● Setting up refillable and reusable packaging systems

● Staying up to date with regulations, getting accurate data and developing required reporting

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The report also looked for opportunities for AI to help overcome these pain points and develop circular packaging solutions, identifying 15 areas where the tech could be used. And there are four, in particular, where AI seems to have the most promise - both in terms of feasibility and benefits:

● Packaging design optimisation

● Generative new design

● Advanced sorting

● Material traceability

Most of these are related to the initial design of the packaging, which highlights how circularity starts at the design phase. However, AI isn’t a magic wand that can just be autonomously waved to achieve circularity.

A support role for AI

With circularity only one consideration in packaging design, alongside things like aesthetics and functionality, AI is a tool best wielded in the hands of a designer who can maintain oversight of all these different requirements.

For example, if a packaging designer has created a new concept, AI can then help identify opportunities to reduce the material used, improve recyclability, or optimise the design for shipping.

Likewise, designers can work with AI to generate new packaging designs based on specified requirements faster. This helps to weed out unsuitable ideas early on and to visualise new iterations based on tweaks.

Figures shared by Bain & Co. indicate that the use of AI in these ways can have measurable benefits, such as reducing packaging development time from 18-20 months to around 100 days.

AI-powered packaging design optimisation can also deliver a 7% reduction in shipping costs, and reduce the R&D costs associated with new material discovery by as much as 25%.

This is where AI’s role seems to lie in developing a packaging circular economy, supporting and turbocharging efforts to make improvements. Because the faster the groundwork is laid, the sooner mainstream circular packaging could be a reality.

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By Jack Stratten, Director and Head of Trends at retail trends agency Insider Trends.

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