A leading packaging manufacturer is urging brands to stop treating sustainable packaging as a tick-box exercise, warning that many products marketed as "recyclable" are being undermined by production choices made long after the material sourcing decision has been ticked off.
Packaging expert Nick Jones, Managing Director of Ultragraph, a print and packaging manufacturer based in Burscough that produces more than five million cartons and three million printed pages every month across more than 400 client projects, was speaking in the wake of a new report published earlier this month. It showed that even Mars, one of the world's biggest packaging buyers, has only 67.6% of its consumer-facing packaging currently designed to be reusable, recyclable or compostable – well short of the 100% it originally targeted for 2025.
Jones says the industry's fixation on sourcing sustainable board is only "the start of the story."
In a new white paper aimed at brand owners and packaging buyers, he argues that decisions made further down the production line – from ink and coating selection to film lamination and press technology – can quietly cancel out the environmental credentials a brand believes it has secured.
He is particularly critical of the continued use of UV inks and film lamination on paper-based packaging, both of which can make board difficult or impossible to recycle despite carrying sustainable sourcing credentials such as FSC certification.
Mr Jones, whose family business has been running since 1973 and now operates one of the UK's most advanced print and packaging facilities, says there is no single fix that works for every brand or every product, and that buyers need to ask harder questions of their suppliers.
He said:
"We are all under pressure to look at the impact of what we are doing on the environment. This needs to be balanced against the financial pressures from rising energy and raw material costs whilst trying to deliver maximum returns for our customers.
"A 'one size fits all' approach simply doesn't cut it when considering working with a print supplier. Depending on your needs, you may even need two or three suppliers and play to each of their strengths to deliver on your aspirations.
"From my own experiences advising and working with clients over the last thirty-five years or so, I think that it is extremely important for the buyer to understand what suppliers can offer and, through dialogue, work out how to deliver an end product that is firstly fit for purpose and secondly meets sustainability and recycling goals."
Here, Jones answers the key questions raised by his white paper.
Q&A with Nick Jones, Managing Director, Ultragraph
Q: What's the biggest misconception brands have about sustainable packaging?
"Most brands think the job is done once they've chosen an FSC-certified board. That's a good first step, but it's genuinely only the start. What happens to that board during printing and finishing can undo all of that good work. I wanted to challenge people on that."
Q: Why single out UV printing specifically?
"UV inks and coatings make de-inking during recycling much harder. Pigment traces get left behind in the recycled paper. Some ink manufacturers are working on formulations that pass ISO de-inking tests, but it's not universal yet, so it's a conversation buyers need to have directly with their printer."
Q: Is film lamination as much of a problem?
"It can be. A thin plastic film on paperboard often can't be separated at recycling facilities, so the material gets downcycled into something lower grade rather than turned back into new board. It looks and feels premium, but it comes at a real cost to recyclability."
Q: So what should buyers actually be asking their suppliers?
"Ask what happens to the board after it leaves the press. Ask about ink type, coatings, and whether lamination is really necessary or whether an inline effect could achieve the same look. And don't assume one supplier can do everything well. Sometimes the right answer is using two or three suppliers who each play to their strengths."
Q: What would you say to a brand that thinks this is too complicated to fix?
"It doesn't need to be. It just needs a proper conversation early on, rather than treating sustainability as something you bolt on at the material sourcing stage and forget about. That's really the whole point of the white paper."
For more information, visit www.ultragraph.co.uk