Kinga Sieradzon, Vice President Sustainability Operations, Tetra Pak
Packaging rarely gets the recognition, but it quietly holds the food system together. It reliably protects food in homes, schools and communities around the world. But its role goes far beyond convenience. Packaging is a core enabler of modern food systems, helping ensure food is safe, available and accessible to all, while also reducing waste across the supply chain.
Without effective packaging, food spoils sooner, supply chains are put at risk, waste increases, and costs rise for households and governments alike, underlining its role as critical infrastructure that supports societies and economies in thriving.
Now more than ever, strengthening food security is critical. As climate shocks and geopolitical tensions expose weaknesses in global food systems, resilient infrastructure plays a vital role in protecting access to food.
A means of getting food further
In 2024, between 638 and 720 million people faced hunger,[1] and yet more than one-third of food produced is lost or wasted.[2] This disparity highlights the urgency of improving food access and reducing waste.
Packaging plays a fundamental role in reducing waste and extending access to food. By protecting products from light, oxygen and microorganisms, aseptic carton packages enable shelf life of up to a year without preservatives, cold-chain distribution, or refrigeration.
This is essential in regions where cold-chain infrastructure is limited or unreliable, particularly in hotter climates or rural areas. This remains more common in less developed markets.
But the need is not limited to emerging markets. Ongoing disruption to global supply chains is reshaping how food is produced, moved and stored, increasing the importance of resilient, shelf-stable solutions such as cartons.
Across both developed and emerging markets, aseptic carton technology enables shelf-stable products to reach remote communities, informal retail settings and small community shops, while also supporting large-scale retail distribution and online grocery models.
Their role extends beyond retail. School feeding programmes are a clear example of how cartons support access to food at scale. Each year, our customers deliver milk and other perishable foods in cartons to more than 66 million schoolchildren across 49 countries.[3]
The benefits also extend beyond consumers. Smallholder farmers, for example, gain greater access to markets, improving incomes and stability. In countries like Kenya, Colombia and the Dominican Republic, Dairy Hubs have connected almost 84,500 smallholder farmers to formalised markets[4], showing how processing and packaging infrastructure can underpin local communities and improve livelihoods.
Building sustainability into food systems
The same systems that improve food access must also be designed to reduce environmental impact. The challenge is not choosing between the two, but delivering both at scale.
Life Cycle Assessments (LCAs) and product carbon footprint calculations in many markets show that cartons can compare favourably with other packaging options, including plastic, glass and metal, largely due to their high share of renewable materials.[5]
It is essential that cartons are made primarily from responsibly sourced paperboard, with standards such as FSC™ helping ensure fibre comes from more sustainable sources.
Ongoing innovation is also reducing environmental impact. Advances in barrier technology, for example, have enabled the creation of paper-based barrier layers that can increase a carton’s renewable content to around 90%, while reducing the carbon footprint of the package.
Strengthening collection and recycling systems
Designing packaging for recyclability is essential, but it is only part of the solution. Recycling only works if materials are actually collected and processed at scale. Across many markets, collection and recycling infrastructure remains uneven. This is now one of the central challenges for the packaging industry and policymakers alike.
As governments move into the implementation phase of new packaging legislation, the focus is increasingly shifting from material design to system performance, including how effectively packaging is collected, sorted and recycled in practice.
Strengthening these systems requires coordinated investment, clear policy frameworks and stronger collaboration across the value chain, from producers and brands to recyclers and municipalities. This ensures that packaging materials can remain in productive use for longer.
When cartons have completed their primary job of delivering food and are recycled, their materials can continue to provide value. Paper fibres can be processed into new paper products, while polymers and aluminium can be combined into a durable material known as polyAl, which can be used in products such as building materials, pallets and crates.
The carton contribution
Recognising packaging as infrastructure changes the conversation. It is not only about materials, but about how systems are designed to ensure food can reach people safely, efficiently and with minimal waste.
Food security depends not just on what is grown, but also on how it is protected, transported and delivered. Renewable and recyclable packaging solutions balance social and environmental considerations, fight waste and promote circularity, all while playing a key role in building the resilient food systems we urgently need. Cartons are one part of that system, helping extend access to food while supporting the transition to a lower-carbon, more circular economy.
That’s a contribution worth recognising.
