[EXHIBITOR EDITION] PACK EXPO Las Vegas and the Push Toward Greener Machines

Guest: Rebecca Marquez, Director, PMMI Media Group Custom Research

In this episode, Rebecca Marquez joins the pod to discuss how sustainability is transforming packaging machinery—from adaptable equipment to consumer and regulatory pressures. She shares trends, OEM challenges, and tips for PACK EXPO Las Vegas exhibitors to spotlight their sustainable solutions.

Sean Riley: Hi, and welcome to UnPACKed with PMMI. I'm your host, Sean Riley. In this episode, we welcome PMMI Director of Custom Research, Rebecca Marquez, back to the pod. Together, we explore how sustainability is reshaping the packaging machinery industry from the need for more adaptable equipment to the rising influence of consumer demand and regulatory pressures. Rebecca shares insights on material trends, challenges for OEMs and what exhibitors can take advantage of at PACK EXPO Las Vegas to highlight their sustainable solutions so attendees can find them. Let's have a listen. So with all the fancy introductions out of the way, welcome back to the podcast, Rebecca.

Rebecca Marquez: Thanks for having me.

Sean Riley: Oh, the pleasure is always ours. So today we are talking sustainability. How do you see sustainability shaping the future of packaging machinery?

Rebecca Marquez: It's really interesting that you ask that because our industry is a step removed from the consumers—

Sean Riley: Exactly.

Rebecca Marquez: And so that is a question I get pretty frequently. I think the biggest change is going to be that machinery builders are going to be expected to make things that are more flexible and are easier to change up quickly. Because one of the biggest problems that we're facing right now is that when brand manufacturers need to change materials, and that's sometimes driven by the need for more sustainable materials, it's really difficult for them to do on their existing machinery, and sometimes they can't even do it. As materials change, you can't just keep buying new equipment. You have to have machinery that changes with the equipment or is able to change and adapt, and I think that's probably one of the biggest changes we're going to see on the machinery industry.

Sean Riley: You talked about materials. What trends do you think are going to have the most impact in the next five to 10 years regarding materials?

Rebecca Marquez: We are currently seeing that nothing is going on with plastics, except they're continuing to be used. There are groups that are vilifying plastics. Plastics have their place, and you do hear of people who would like to ban them outright. That doesn't look like it's going to happen anytime soon. Plastics do meet a lot of needs for a lot of different kinds of products.

Sean Riley: Yep.

Rebecca Marquez: Brand manufacturers are still using them. A lot of companies are trying to make the shift to paper if they can. We're seeing advances in the multi-materials because they're really difficult to recycle. We're seeing that, and the glass is weird. It's almost infinitely recyclable, but our infrastructure sometimes it's so different across the United States—

Sean Riley: Right.

Rebecca Marquez: ... that a lot of places don't even recycle it anymore, and it's really heavy to ship, too.

Sean Riley: True.

Rebecca Marquez: So a lot of brand manufacturers might choose something different, something lighter, but in materials, I think we're going to continue to see plastic for quite a while, but honestly, there's a place for all materials. We should probably just be smarter about it.

Sean Riley: We talked about the consumers. How is the demand for eco-friendly packaging? You touched on it, but could you expand a little bit on how it's influencing packaging, machinery design, and technology?

Rebecca Marquez: Absolutely. A lot of these projects for brand manufacturers are driven by the consumer. They're constantly testing things in marketing, which is the first touch point of the consumer. And so consumers are getting more and more savvy about the materials that their products are coming in. And I hear this very often, consumers want something to be more recyclable, but they don't want to pay for it, and that tends to be changing a little bit. And also, as materials change and become more modern, they get less expensive. But a lot of the projects that happen with material changes are marketing-driven, and that's directly from the consumer.

Sean Riley: Okay.

Rebecca Marquez: So when a brand wants to make a change in material, that request may come directly from marketing, and it has to be done. It might not even be good for the product. Sometimes, engineering will just have to make it work because there are a lot of elements of the packaging material that have to fit the product itself. For example, oxygen barriers, oil barriers, things of that nature.

Sean Riley: Right.

Rebecca Marquez: And when you finally decide on that as a brand, then you have to go to your machine manufacturer and say, "Okay, we've tested the materials. This is what works best. Now a machine has to work with this material."

Sean Riley: I'm thinking from the machinery person standpoint, the OEM, how can they optimize and handle the recyclables and the reusable materials, these new materials without sacrificing performance or efficiency, throughput, output, things like that? How do they marry the two?

Rebecca Marquez: That's really hard because when you're changing materials, that's what you don't want to do.

Sean Riley: Right.

Rebecca Marquez: You don't want to impede your productivity. That's one of the challenges for machine makers, and that's why I think folks like our members and our exhibitors need to pay attention to things like this because they are changes that are happening now, and that's going to become important for them. No brand manufacturer is going to want to have to slow down because the materials don't run on a machine or they run inefficiently. And so our OEMs are going to have to pay attention to that. And again, at the beginning of our conversation, I said it's a little unusual because we tend to think of ourselves as being removed from this—

Sean Riley: Right.

Rebecca Marquez: ... because we're not directly consumer-facing, but we are going to be impacted by this. I'm starting to hear about brand manufacturers that are asking our members about their sustainability practices as well, and that are making a difference in purchasing decisions. So that's just one more way that the OEM industry will need to also pay attention.

Sean Riley: It took a while to get to us. Sustainability was a buzzword for the last 10 to 15 years, and it started with the low-hanging fruit, and now it's made its way to the machinery where they're making sure that their OEMs are even locked in and are sustainable back in their plants.

Rebecca Marquez: Exactly.

Sean Riley: Very interesting. How about from retailers? And I know the government's getting involved a bit. How much pressure are OEMs facing to adopt sustainable solutions from retailers and the government?

Rebecca Marquez: From retailers, they're becoming pretty important in how packaging decisions are made. A lot of consumers are going to big-box stores. As our economy changes, shopping habits change. So you have consumers that are going to big box stores, buying in bulk, buying larger format packaging, and that requires different types of packaging. It requires things to be bundled, things to be wrapped differently, things to be grouped together like cardboard boxes, things to be easier to carry, and that definitely impacts our machinery industry. So there have to be solutions to all that.

Sean Riley: Right.

Rebecca Marquez: And there have to be materials that are developed, or materials have to be used in a certain way, to be able to have customers be able to transport those things. And they also have to be kept safe when they're being transported to the retail center. And that comes from our materials manufacturers, as well as our OEMs, because those materials, how they're formatted, make a difference in how they work with the machinery that our OEMs are creating. It all works together. None of these groups is an island. Right?

Sean Riley: Right.

Rebecca Marquez: OEMs, brand manufacturers, and materials need to work in sync together.

Sean Riley: And how about the government? Are there regulatory changes or policies that OEMs need to consider when focusing on sustainability?

Rebecca Marquez: Big time. I'm sure a lot of people have heard of EPR—

Sean Riley: Right.

Rebecca Marquez: Extended producer responsibility. It's what a lot of people are talking about now, and there's going to be some discussions about it at PACK EXPO, Las Vegas, which I'm really excited about. EPR, there is a group of regulations that are happening in states across the US. And how it's happening now is they're tending to be different in every state, which is really going to be challenging for brand manufacturers.

Sean Riley: Yes. Absolutely.

Rebecca Marquez: So we don't want that to happen, and I'm sure packaging machinery manufacturers won't want that to happen. Brand manufacturers absolutely don't want that to happen, but we don't do advocacy. So that's not our lane. We do work with groups who do advocacy, but at the end of the day, having 50 different kinds of EPR regulations across the United States is really not good for anyone.

Sean Riley: No.

Rebecca Marquez: It's really going to be challenging, and that will funnel down to our machinery makers as well.

Sean Riley: Is there any movement on the federal government getting involved, or is it still a ways away?

Rebecca Marquez: I think it's a ways away.

Sean Riley: Right.

Rebecca Marquez: Now, we did a report on this in 2022 called The Packaging Compass, and we're just updating it too. That's about to come out in the next week or so. We did a report, though, that was looking at policy, and at the time, I was interviewing policy folks and cycling folks across the country, and I did ask about federal regulations and the federal government getting involved in regulations like this. And really, the sentiment at the time was that, no, they don't foresee the government getting involved in these types of initiatives. Right now, we're so divided, and it's been politicized.

Sean Riley: Okay.

Rebecca Marquez: They just don't really see that happening, and I don't think that's really changed much. So I think right now, it's going to be more so at the state level.

Sean Riley: Which just causes headaches for everybody. It's for the greater good, but I get that individual states, I think it's up to six.

Rebecca Marquez: I think it's six—

Sean Riley: Okay.

Rebecca Marquez: Although I did just go to a conference this week, and what they're trying to do is just have states work together as well.

Sean Riley: Oh, interesting.

Rebecca Marquez: So that's something promising, and that could happen. That could be a big savior in this situation. So that is something that could really help.

Sean Riley: Okay, good. All right, we're talking to exhibitors for PACK EXPO Las Vegas. It's coming up. I know PACK EXPO Las Vegas, all the PACK EXPOs have always been ahead of the curve regarding sustainability. We've had PACK EXPO Green, where exhibitors could indicate that they were offered sustainable solutions. What does PACK EXPO Las Vegas in particular provide for exhibitors to indicate that "We're offering sustainable solutions. These are sustainable things that you can come across if you're an attendee at PACK EXPO Las Vegas?"

Rebecca Marquez: We have Sustainability Central, and we do have the sustainability description section at the Exhibitor Resource Center.

Sean Riley: Okay.

Rebecca Marquez: So if you want to be recognized as someone who does offer sustainability solutions to their customers, you need to fill that out. It's part of the PACK EXPO Green program. If you fill it out and complete that, exhibitors are promoted via targeted attendee promotions with links to sustainable solutions. So you're really going to be recognized for those solutions, and people will be able to find you easily.

Sean Riley: I like that.

Rebecca Marquez: And then there's going to provide some guidance as well on how you can be found, better ways in which you can be found, like using buzzwords, using keywords that you want to be found under, things like that. There are also a lot of sustainability education sessions at the show, and exhibitors can choose to participate in those. So you want to make sure that if you do, you really promote your products, and that you are going to be doing an education session that people can come and see you talking about your products.

Sean Riley: Yeah, if I'm not mistaken, they're the number one attended sessions are the sustainability sessions. If you have one, you definitely want to make sure that you're promoting it as an exhibitor if you're speaking at the innovation stage or on the Sustainability Central. And that's a pretty good breakdown of sustainability, Rebecca. I want to thank you for giving us 15 minutes of your time to come on here and set our exhibitors up on what they can expect from PACK EXPO and what's happening out there in the sustainability world. So thanks again.

Rebecca Marquez: Of course.

Sean Riley: Thanks for listening to this episode of UnPACKed with PMMI. If you liked what you heard, be sure to follow or subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen. That way, you won't miss any of the industry insights coming your way. While you're there, we'd really appreciate a rating or review. Want more? Visit pmmi.org/podcasts for all of our past episodes and additional resources. Thanks again for tuning in. I'll see you next time.

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