Sustainability in Healthcare Packaging: The Journey From Yesterday to Tomorrow

Sustainability in healthcare packaging has undergone a significant evolution over the past two decades. Historically, product protection, patient safety, regulatory compliance, manufacturing reliability, and cost-effectiveness predominantly drove packaging development. Today, environmental responsibility has become an increasingly important consideration, influencing material selection, packaging design, manufacturing processes, and supply-chain strategies.¹

Looking ahead, advances in material science, AI, predictive engineering, and digital technologies could fundamentally transform how healthcare packaging is developed and commercialized.

Throughout this evolution, one principle remains unchanged: packaging must protect medicines, safeguard patients, and ensure reliable access to treatment.

The opportunity is not simply to replace materials or improve recyclability, but to develop scientifically validated, environmentally responsible, and commercially scalable packaging systems that balance patient safety, environmental performance, and business value.

The Past: Establishing the Foundations of Healthcare Packaging

Healthcare packaging has traditionally focused on protecting product integrity, ensuring quality, and meeting stringent regulatory and manufacturing requirements. Materials such as glass, aluminum, and specialized polymers were selected for their established barrier properties, chemical compatibility, processing performance, and reliability.^1,2

Environmental considerations were historically secondary to these essential requirements. However, growing awareness of climate change, resource consumption, and the environmental consequences of manufacturing and disposal gradually brought sustainability into packaging discussions.

An important distinction emerged between carbon reduction and circularity. A packaging material with favorable recycling characteristics does not necessarily deliver the lowest carbon footprint, whereas a lightweight material may reduce transportation emissions but present challenges at end of life.

This distinction highlighted the importance of lifecycle assessment (LCA), evaluating raw-material sourcing, manufacturing, transportation, product protection, and disposal rather than focusing on individual material attributes.

This evolution marked an important shift from evaluating packaging primarily through functional and operational requirements toward a broader understanding of environmental performance across the product lifecycle, without compromising the quality, safety, or efficacy of medicines.

The Present: From Environmental Commitments to Practical Innovation

Today, pharmaceutical companies are translating environmental objectives into practical packaging innovations, building on technologies developed during multiple years.

An early example is GSK's Alvedon (acetaminophen) in Sweden, which had moved to polypropylene (PP) monomaterial blister packaging by 2012, demonstrating an alternative pathway to conventional multilayer pharmaceutical blisters.³

Building on such pioneering developments, the Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Forum (PMF) has established cross-industry collaboration to accelerate the evaluation and adoption of alternative blister structures, including PP, polyethylene, and polyethylene terephthalate (PET).⁴

These technologies must address challenges involving barrier performance, thermoforming, sealing integrity, machinability, product stability, recyclability, and regulatory qualification. Importantly, designing a recyclable blister does not guarantee that appropriate collection, sorting, and recycling infrastructure exists.⁴

Another example is Takeda's adoption of bio-based polyethylene pharmaceutical bottles, introduced in Japan in 2013. Manufactured using plant-derived feedstocks, the bottles retain the functional characteristics of conventional polyethylene while reducing dependence on fossil-based raw materials. Takeda has reported lower CO₂ emissions associated with manufacturing these bottles compared with petroleum-derived polyethylene alternatives.⁵

Beyond material innovation, patient-centric packaging design offers further opportunities to integrate sustainability into healthcare. Packaging solutions must consider accessibility, ease of use, medication adherence, and safe administration while optimizing environmental performance. Integrating these requirements early in product development can enable solutions that improve the patient experience, preserve product integrity, and deliver environmental benefits without introducing unnecessary complexity or compromising functionality.²

These examples illustrate that sustainability innovation extends beyond material substitution. Successful solutions integrate scientific performance, manufacturing feasibility, patient experience, lifecycle impact, and commercial viability.

Regulation: EU PPWR From Regulatory Requirements to Portfolio-Level Transformation

The EU's Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR), Regulation 2025/40, represents a significant shift in packaging legislation. Applicable since August 12, 2026, with major requirements phased in through 2030 and beyond, PPWR establishes a harmonized framework covering recyclability, recycled content, packaging minimization, substances of concern, labeling, reuse, and extended producer responsibility.⁶

For healthcare, the implications are particularly complex. Pharmaceutical packaging, medical devices, diagnostics, and combination products operate under stringent requirements for product stability, sterility, patient safety, and regulatory compliance. Recognizing these considerations, PPWR provides specific exceptions to recyclability and recycled-content requirements for qualifying medicinal, medical-device, and diagnostic packaging. Certain recyclability exceptions are subject to European Commission review by January 2035.⁶

However, these provisions do not constitute blanket exemptions for healthcare packaging. Companies must evaluate their applicability by packaging layer, intended function, and individual regulatory requirement.⁷

For example, an oral pharmaceutical product may have an immediate blister package that qualifies for exceptions from recyclability and minimum recycled-content requirements. However, its secondary carton, labeling materials, and transport packaging require separate assessments. Packaging minimization requirements must also consider product stability, protection, and mandatory patient information.

Similarly, for a biologic combined with an injection device, the packaging system may include a prefilled syringe or pen, protective components, cartons, and logistics packaging. Different components may fall under medicinal-product or medical-device provisions, requiring distinct assessments of recyclability, recycled content, packaging minimization, and regulatory conformity.

In contrast, cosmetic and personal-care packaging, such as plastic bottles, tubes, pumps, and closures, generally does not benefit from pharmaceutical-specific exemptions. These formats may therefore face more direct requirements relating to design for recycling and minimum recycled-plastic content, including differentiated targets for PET and non-PET materials.⁶

PPWR also extends beyond material selection. Article 5 addresses substances in packaging, and Article 10 requires packaging weight and volume to be minimized while preserving necessary functionality. The economic-operator and conformity provisions introduce requirements for technical documentation, supporting evidence, and declarations of conformity. Extended producer responsibility obligations may continue to apply even when specific healthcare packaging is exempt from recyclability requirements.^6,7

These examples demonstrate that PPWR compliance requires more than identifying a sustainable material. It demands a structured assessment of packaging portfolios, suppliers, regulatory classifications, and technical performance across the value chain.

Healthcare companies should therefore view PPWR not merely as a compliance obligation, but as an opportunity to strengthen packaging science, accelerate material innovation, improve supply-chain transparency, and integrate sustainability into long-term portfolio and technology strategies.

Tomorrow: Digitalization and Predictive Packaging Engineering

Digital technologies and advanced scientific capabilities are expected to increasingly enable the next transformation in healthcare packaging sustainability.

AI, computational modeling, molecular simulation, and predictive engineering offer opportunities to evaluate material properties, barrier performance, structural integrity, manufacturing conditions, and environmental impacts earlier in development.

Combined with LCA, these technologies could reduce dependence on traditional trial-and-error experimentation and support more informed decisions balancing technical feasibility, carbon reduction, and commercial requirements.

Digitalization also offers opportunities beyond physical packaging materials.⁸

A cross-industry LCA involving Takeda, GSK, Merck, Novartis, and Sanofi, published through the EFPIA in 2025, compared conventional paper patient information leaflets with electronic patient information (ePI). The independently reviewed study demonstrated 89% to 98% lower environmental impacts for ePI across the impact categories in which statistically significant differences were established.⁹ These findings highlight how digitalization, lifecycle science, and industry collaboration can unlock environmental improvements beyond conventional packaging-material innovation.

Scientific advances alone, however, cannot determine successful adoption. New materials and technologies must demonstrate consistent performance, availability at commercial scale, compatibility with existing manufacturing infrastructure, regulatory acceptability, and economic viability. The ability to connect scientific innovation with manufacturing readiness, supply-chain resilience, and commercial strategy is expected to ultimately determine whether sustainable packaging concepts can transition into widely adopted industry solutions.

Industry Collaboration: Accelerating Innovation and Scale

Individual organizations acting independently cannot achieve the transition toward sustainable healthcare packaging.

Industry associations and collaborative platforms, including EFPIA, the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations, the World Packaging Organization, NVC Packaging Centre, PMF, and the Healthcare Plastics Recycling Council, provide opportunities to exchange scientific knowledge, discuss regulatory developments, and advance practical sustainability solutions.

These platforms play complementary roles in advancing sustainable healthcare packaging. Pharmaceutical industry associations contribute to environmental policy and regulatory discussions, whereas packaging organizations support scientific exchange, sustainable design, and technical education. Initiatives such as PMF's collaborative work on recyclable pharmaceutical blisters and cross-industry LCAs of ePI demonstrate the value of precompetitive research and shared scientific evidence.^4,9

Looking ahead, such collaborations are expected to be essential to addressing common technical barriers, developing practical circularity pathways, and accelerating the qualification and commercialization of sustainable packaging technologies across global healthcare markets.

The Next Chapter: Sustainability as a Strategic Capability

The journey of healthcare packaging sustainability reflects a broader evolution in industry thinking.

The past established the foundations of patient safety, product protection, quality assurance, and manufacturing reliability. Today, material innovations, lifecycle engineering, digital solutions, and regulatory frameworks are creating opportunities for measurable environmental improvement.

Tomorrow, the convergence of advanced material science, predictive technologies, circular systems, and cross-industry collaboration could fundamentally reshape packaging development.

For organizations, this requires integrating sustainability into R&D strategy, product development, supplier selection, manufacturing, and commercialization rather than treating it as a standalone environmental initiative.

Organizations must evaluate success through a balanced combination of environmental impact, patient safety, product performance, regulatory readiness, supply-chain resilience, and business economics.

Ultimately, the industry is likely to judge the future of sustainable healthcare packaging not simply by how much material it eliminates or recycles, but by how effectively it reduces environmental impact while protecting patients, preserving medicines, and creating lasting value for society.

References

1. European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations. Pharmaceutical packaging: driving value for patients, healthcare systems and industry. EFPIA.eu. View source

2. Takeda Pharmaceutical Company. The silent guardian of health: why packaging matters. Takeda.com. View source

3. Ströman M. PP-monoblisters. Contract Pharma. Published September 6, 2012. Accessed [date needed]. View source

4. Stolzenbach R, Ennis J, Kamph E, Banerjee S. The many facets of sustainable and recyclable blister packaging for pharmaceuticals: primary packaging. Healthcare Packaging. Published February 3, 2025.

5. Takeda Pharmaceutical Company. Takeda receives first-ever WorldStar awards for sustainable and environmentally-friendly medication packaging. News release. Published January 25, 2022. View source

6. European Parliament and Council of the European Union. Regulation (EU) 2025/40 on packaging and packaging waste. Official Journal of the European Union. Published January 22, 2025.

7. European Commission. Guidance document for Regulation (EU) 2025/40 on packaging and packaging waste. Published June 10, 2026.

8. Nauwelaerts K, Tellner P. Electronic product information (ePI): making the latest medicine's information available for patients without any delay. European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations. Published November 2, 2022. View source

9. Banerjee S. Environmental footprint of patient information leaflets (PIL): how a paper PIL compares to an electronic PIL (ePI). Guest blog. European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations. Published July 23, 2025. View source