A food retailer’s puzzle: Balancing food waste, packaging recyclability and carbon emissions

For food retailers and brands, sustainable packaging decisions are rarely as simple as using less material. A lighter pack may look better on paper, but if it contributes to food waste or hinders the recyclability, the overall environmental and commercial impact can quickly shift.

As the EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) changes how packaging is designed and evaluated, recyclability, food protection and operational efficiency needs to be balanced across thousands of SKUs. We sat down with Emmanouil (“Manos”) Gitsis, ecosystem engagement manager for sustainability at Avery Dennison Materials Group, to explore how retailers and brands can navigate these requirements by treating packaging as a single, unified ecosystem.


The retail reality check: From voluntary commitments to structured blueprints

Looking back at the industry's initial packaging goals, many organizations committed to voluntary, ambitious targets designed to address plastic pollution. While these early initiatives brought players together, they often lacked standardized legal frameworks.

“The 2025 goals helped set the stage, but they lacked an established legal framework,” Manos explains. “The PPWR introduces a different reality. More and more, we are moving toward mandatory, auditable criteria. Packaging formats must be designed with recycling compatibility in mind, which demands data-backed transparency.”
A key component of this harmonization is the introduction of unified pictograms and disposal icons across EU member states to simplify end-of-life disposal. Retailers and brands are now adapting their formats to align with these regulatory frameworks while balancing consumer convenience.

The food waste paradox and the climate vision tunnel

Managing the balance between packaging reduction and product protection is the food waste paradox. A packaging format that reduces material weight but compromises product integrity can quickly become counterproductive.

“Packaging is designed primarily to protect the product,” says Manos. “If a modification cuts shelf life, the resulting food waste carries a heavy environmental and financial penalty. When food is wasted, the upstream energy, water and emissions are lost. Sustainability efforts should be balanced carefully with functional protection.”

To solve this, Manos cautions against a “climate vision tunnel” that focuses exclusively on carbon while overlooking broader circular metrics. Instead, the focus should be more on category-specific improvements guided by technical data.

Structural blind spots: Evaluating the complete packaging unit

A frequent blind spot occurs when organizations try to meet isolated targets without assessing the final format holistically. A team might reduce plastic weight, but if the new format relies on an incompatible adhesive or a non-compatible label facestock, recyclability can suffer.

“There’s a growing need to move away from looking at packaging components in isolation,” Manos emphasizes. “The PPWR evaluates recyclability at the level of the complete packaging unit, including the body, closure, label and inks. If an incompatible closure is specified, it can negatively impact the final recycling process.”

By treating label-to-substrate compatibility as a core design requirement early, the label can be used as an agile tool to support technical and regulatory compliance.

Data confidence and optimizing fee exposure

Transitioning a supply chain requires moving away from guesswork and equipping teams with a shared, objective technical language.

Under Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) schemes, EU member states scale up eco-modulated fee structures. Formats that struggle in recycling streams may face higher costs, while compatible designs may qualify for more favorable fee categories.

Labeling choices can play an important role in managing this exposure. For rigid plastics, solutions like AD CleanFlake™ enable clean label separation during the recycling process, supporting recycling process compatibility. For reusable glass or PET containers, Avery Dennison’s specialized wash-off labels are designed to detach efficiently during industrial washing, leaving the substrate ready for re-labeling. Additionally, RFID and QR technologies can help to better manage reusable assets, track inventory and communicate transparency.


A holistic pathway forward

For teams preparing for stricter compliance, the path forward relies on cross-value-chain collaboration.

“We should look at the package not merely as a collection of separate pieces — the container, the lid, the adhesive and the label — but as an interconnected ecosystem,” Manos concludes. “Systemic shifts are difficult for any single entity to drive alone. Many of the successful organizations moving toward these timelines are collaborating early with materials science experts like Avery Dennison. By treating the label as a strategic link that supports technical compliance and helps manage cost exposure, you can help mitigate transition risk and maintain operational momentum.”