In this special live episode recorded at the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville, Tennessee during the Sustainable Packaging Coalition Impact Event, Cory Connors shares the stage with Olga Kachook to present the Third Annual Sustainable Packaging Trends Report for 2025–2026. Olga walks through the four key trends shaping the industry and dives deeper into each one in conversation with Cory, covering everything from EPR maturity to innovation in healthcare packaging.

Key Topics Discussed:

• Regions defining recyclability — Canada, the UK, and the EU leading the way and what that means for the US
• Innovation breakthroughs in OTC and healthcare packaging, including paper prescription bottles
• EPR turning five — progress made and challenges that remain
• Shared data driving recyclability clarity, including the upgrade of polypropylene cold cups under the How to Recycle program
• Designing for EPR — setting your own certainty in the face of regulatory uncertainty
• The "magic wand" thought experiment: how would you design your packaging portfolio if starting fresh today?
• Coated paper and molded fiber as focus areas for the SPC's paper recyclability collaborative
• The role of AI sorting technology in generating better recycling data
• Reusable e-commerce as an emerging opportunity — FedEx and Returnity's B2B partnership
• Predictions for the 2027 Trends Report, including consumer education and infrastructure expansion in EPR states
• Cabinet Health's refillable OTC packaging model, available at Target and Amazon

Resources Mentioned:

• Sustainable Packaging Coalition (SPC) 
• SPC Paper Recyclability Collaborative
• How to Recycle Program
• Cabinet Health — refillable OTC packaging
• NextGen Consortium
• Returnity Reusable Shipping

Contact: For more information on the SPC Trends Report, scan the QR code mentioned in the episode or visit sustainablepackaging.org.

Thank you for tuning in to Sustainable Packaging with Cory Connors, presented by Atlantic Packaging!

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