Considering the effect of the COVID-19 crisis on packaging trends, The Packer’s Tom Karst visited June 2 with Jay Singh, professor at Cal Poly and packaging program director at the school.
Singh said unprecedented pandemic has had a variable effect on packaging needs.
Growth in e-commerce has been one dominant trend, Singh said.
“E-commerce has been booming; I don’t know of anybody who’s not reached out to e-commerce sites to buy stuff because you can’t get out and buy in your usual (way of) shopping,” he said.
Singh also talked about the potential effects of the crisis on packaging trends such as sustainability, recycling and the use of compostable materials.
“You cannot compromise on protection, you cannot compromise on tampering, you cannot compromise on a lot of things which certain materials do much better than others,” Singh said. “You don’t want to mess with that, unless you Have a good enough alternative.”
Singh said the push for more sustainable packaging is not going away.
