Tuesday, 14 July 2026

• The sustainability reset: Where UK packaging stands today
• Regulation, costs, and the new commercial reality
• What success looks like in 2025–2030

Extended Producer Responsibility & Regulatory Reform

• Real-world EPR cost exposure for brands and converters
• Data accuracy, audits, and reporting readiness
• Contract renegotiation across the supply chain
• How DRS and Simpler Recycling will reshape packaging choices

Talk 1: Beyond the Pack: Designing Sustainable Packaging Systems for Planet-Scale Impact

• From materials to systems thinking
• Redefining waste as a resource
• Designing for human behaviour
• The role of ethical data & transparency
• Balancing commercial reality with planet timescales

Jayne Cunningham, Group Packaging Technical Manager, New England Seafood

Talk 2: EPR - Our Data Journey

• How did we tackle it? Our journey so far
• Supporting systems
• What our customers are asking from us
• The future for our packaging data  

Janet Harney, Packaging Compliance Manager, ABP UK

Talk 1: Circularity Pays

• Consumer engagement for Reuse
• Rewards for Recycling
• Interactive QR codes to build brand equity around sustainability messaging
• Barcode-level proof of recycling rates through the Ecotrace Programme
• Sorting flexible plastic at scale

Laura Fernandez, Packaging and Sustainability Manager, Ocado Retail
Alice Rackley, CEO and Co Founder, Polytag

Talk 2: Flexibles: the next recycling frontier? 

Reserved for Zeiss

Talk 3: From Data to Decisions: Mapping Packaging Flows in the EPR Era

Extended Producer Responsibility is changing how packaging data is generated, scrutinised and used, creating a stronger evidence base for understanding how packaging flows through the waste and recycling system. PackFlow combines EPR reporting with wider packaging compliance data to clarify how materials move from being placed on the market through to collection, sorting and reprocessing.

This session explores how detailed, validated data can be used to map material flows, showing where different packaging formats and polymer types are captured, lost or displaced across the system. These insights are set against wider structural change, including Simpler Recycling, producer-led design changes, deposit return schemes, and evolving producer and consumer behaviour all of which influence the materials entering waste management and reprocessing facilities now and in the future.

Using practical examples, the session demonstrates how improved visibility of packaging flows can support operational planning, capacity management and longer-term investment decisions, reducing uncertainty in an increasingly complex policy and market environment.

James Skidmore, Director of Consulting, Valpak
Dave Gudgeon, Head of External Affairs, Eurokey

Recycling Infrastructure & Waste Systems

• UK capacity gaps and investment priorities
• Consistent collections and public behaviour change
• Tackling contamination and difficult formats
• Aligning brand ambition with council realities

Moderator: Jude Allen

Carbon, LCA & Commercial Impact

• Measuring carbon consistently across the supply chain
• Scope 3 emissions and supplier engagement
• The “green premium” – who really pays?
• Where investment is flowing and why
• What sustainable packaging will realistically look like in 2030

Moderator: Sonia Sánchez Torres

Start-up and supplier innovation demos

Circular Economy & Design for Recyclability

• Designing for actual UK recycling infrastructure
• Mono-materials vs barrier performance
• The cost and carbon implications of redesign

Moderator: Zeiss

• Packaging & resources in a volatile global marketplace - refocusing on the waste hierarchy
• The commercial opportunities of reuse for the whole supply chain
• Alignment with the EU and priorities for UK businesses

Moderator: Catherine Conway

Talk 1: Sustainability Throughout the Value Chain

For Smurfit Westrock, sustainability means promoting circularity and sustainable practices throughout all our operations. We partner with our customers to create sustainable solutions for every point of the packaging lifecycle, from responsible sourcing to packaging design to recycling infrastructure. Through these partnerships, we have facilitated more efficient and sustainable supply chains, helped reduce the carbon footprint of our customers’ packaging, and increased recovery and recycling, while continuing to evaluate and improve our own processes. Our goal is for our circular value chain to have a positive impact on the planet, our people and communities, and our business.

Julie Elder, Sustainability Programme Manager EMEA, Smurfit Westrock

Talk 2: From Source to Shelf: Tackling Forest Risk in Packaging Supply Chains

• How brands can map packaging supply chains to identify links to high-risk forest sources
• What responsible sourcing looks like in practice across global markets
• How upstream decisions connect to downstream outcomes, including recyclability and circularity

Cait Green, Brand Engagement Manager, Canopy Pack4Good

Talk 3: High-barrier fibre packaging breakthroughs

Alternatives & Material Innovation

• The unintended consequences of substitution
• Compostables and bio-materials: opportunity vs infrastructure
• Food safety, shelf life, and barrier innovation
• How brands balance PR pressure with technical reality

• Key takeaways
• Industry priorities for the next 12–24 months
• Call to action for collaboration across the value chain

The summit concludes at 17:30. The awards ceremony, gala dinner and evening entertainment follow. Book a combined ticket or awards table on the booking page.