No time to waste: Mintel expert discusses opportunities and challenges for packaging

Seeing is believing, and brands need to be open and show people their processes. 25% of 16-to-24-year-olds in the UK want to see advertising that promotes the brands' environmental efforts. You can show someone the plastic bottle recycling process, or live-stream your forests growing! There are brands like Reformation in the US that offer factory tours and show how much water and CO2 was used to make a particular dress or suit, then comparing its results to the industry standard.

Mondi: What are the opportunities you see today for the paper packaging industry?

Richard Cope: Paper consumption is increasing year-on-year in Europe. The industry could be even more ambitious about explaining what kind of things can be made out of paper. That includes things that can be sold and things that capture people's imagination.

We're seeing companies making furniture out of paper that's fully recyclable, pellets made from toilet paper used as a road-building material, replica frames for glasses crafted from cardboard and eco-friendly cigarette filter tips that release live seeds when discarded.

There are also innovative forms of paper food packaging that imitate plastics, like tactile Bemis film with the feel and sound of artisan brown kraft paper used to wrap snacks, and sachets of coconut oil in a paper pouch with a metalized barrier layer.

Paper can be a clean growth industry. With the increase of sustainably managed forests, full of oxygen-producing trees, it's not only a renewable source but a net contributor to the environment - adding clean air into the atmosphere. In an era of diminishing resources, like coal and the oil required to make plastic, paper's a pollution solution that can help counter pollution.

Mondi: Everyone's talking about how drone delivery could disrupt retail and packaging. What's around the corner?

Richard Cope: Drone delivery, in my opinion, is definitely not going to go mainstream, because we're urbanising and don't all have a convenient backyard for drone delivery. But delivery in corrugated packaging will continue to grow and one reason is the ageing population because that is going to be the only way of shopping for the elderly. Their needs will drive e-commerce and delivery going forward.