proporciona un marco para ordenar prioridades, identificar brechas y orientar la inversión tecnológica. Su carácter dinámico permitirá además adaptarse a la evolución de la regulación, las tecnologías y el mercado. En definitiva, el desafío para la industria española será convertir el nuevo escenario regulatorio en una estrategia tecnológica capaz de acelerar el paso desde el conocimiento y la experimentación hacia soluciones escalables, competitivas y verificables. The packaging value chain is undergoing a profound technological transformation. The evolution of the European regulatory framework, combined with pressure regarding resource consumption, waste generation, and emissions, is altering the criteria that have traditionally guided packaging development. Sustainability is shifting from being an additional attribute to becoming a technical variable that must be incorporated from the initial design stages. Developing packaging requires an integrated approach that considers functional performance, safety, material consumption, recyclability, recycled content, reusability, end-of-life, traceability, and industrial feasibility. A key driver of this shift is Regulation (EU) 2025/40 on packaging and packaging waste (PPWR), which generally applies from August 12, 2026. The Regulation establishes harmonized requirements regarding the manufacture, composition, prevention, reuse, recyclability, and management of packaging placed on the European market, including targets for recyclability by 2030 and for the incorporation of recycled material into specific plastic packaging. For the industry, this means that an increasing share of regulatory compliance will be determined by technical decisions made during the early stages of development. From eco-design to design for circularity Eco-design is evolving from an approach focused on reducing weight and volume toward multi-criteria assessment models. Material selection must consider not only mechanical properties, barrier performance, processability, and cost, but also behavior during use and integration into actual collection, sorting, recycling, or reuse systems. This challenge is particularly significant for multilayer structures. While they excel at combining barrier, preservation, and strength properties, they can also present greater difficulties for separation and recycling. Consequently, innovation is moving toward simplified structures, mono-material solutions (where technically feasible), new formulations, and barrier systems that are compatible with recycling processes. In this regard, the 2026–2030 Strategic Agenda for Packaging Innovation in Spain prioritizes the evolution of eco-design and the transition toward structures with higher recyclability, incorporating variables such as functionality, recyclability, reusability, compostability, resource consumption, and compatibility with existing management systems. From potential to actual recyclability One of the key technological challenges is demonstrating that packaging deemed recyclable under controlled conditions retains that performance within real-world waste streams. Materials, formats, colors, additives, labels, adhesives, and barrier layers can all impact collection, sorting, washing, separation, and processing. Consequently, there is a need for testing methods, validation protocols, and comparable data to evaluate packaging performance throughout the entire treatment chain and to predict its behavior prior to market launch. In this area, the Agenda identifies priorities such as improving sorting and recycling processes, developing recyclable polymer structures, and establishing effective closed-loop systems for food packaging. New materials and industrial scaling Research into bio-based materials, recycled polymers, novel polymer structures, and waste-derived raw materials is advancing rapidly. However, a formulation that proves technically viable in the laboratory must subsequently overcome the challenge of industrial-scale production. Introducing new materials may require adapting extruders, injection molding machines, thermoformers, lamination lines, printing equipment, and sealing systems, as well as modifying process parameters and quality control measures. The Agenda explicitly identifies the industrial adaptation of new materials—along with the optimization of their sourcing and scaling—as priority areas. The same logic applies to raw materials obtained through waste valorization. Their potential to create new material sources must be weighed against factors such as availability, supply stability, variability, contamination, and final properties. Development efforts must integrate supply, processing, application, and end-of-life considerations from the very beginning. 34TEMA CENTRAL I MAIN TOPIC La transformación tecnológica del envase ante el nuevo marco regulatorio europeo The technological transformation of packaging in light of the new European regulatory framewor Belén García, directora de Packnet Packnet Director
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy Njg1MjYx