Sustainable and Smart Packaging

There is an ever-increasing urgent demand for sustainable packaging from consumers, retailers, industry stakeholders, and governments. With a combination of academic excellence, advanced materials science, manufacturing digitisation and packaging automation research, Manchester is the perfect place to exploit this market which is set to be worth £309 billion by 2024.

Materials innovation and digital advancement thrive here in Manchester. This coupled with the city region’s ambition to be carbon neutral by 2038 including waste reduction through the Plastic Free Pledge, provides companies with the key ingredients to develop innovative and novel packaging materials that can be reused, recycled and disposed of sustainably.

Against a backdrop of plastics production set to double to approximately 600 million metric tonnes by 2035, the UK aims to become the world leader in using resources efficiently and reducing the amount of waste we create. The Department for International Trade has recognised Manchester as a High Potential Opportunity which is further supported by the Waste and Resource (WRAP) UK Pact, a £20 million Plastics Research and Innovation Fund, the implementation of a new plastics tax in 2022 and the UK Made Smarter programme.

To find out how your sustainable packaging business could excel in Manchester, contact MIDAS, Greater Manchester’s inward investment agency, who can connect you with leading research assets and help build your business case to move to the city of firsts.

Why Manchester?

There is also an abundance of customers and partners right on the doorstep, with a food and drink manufacturing and related services cluster of over 700 companies including Kraft Heinz, McVities, Heineken and Kellogg’s.

Advanced Digital Capabilities

With specialisms in printed electronics, 2D and nano materials, smart technologies, 3D printing and robotics and autonomous systems, Manchester also provides advanced digital capabilities to enable your smart packaging revolution:

- Print City is located at Manchester Metropolitan University

- Autonomous Systems and Advanced Robotics Research Centre at the University of  Salford

- School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering along with the School of Materials at The University of Manchester

Get in Touch

To find out more about how MIDAS can help your business move to Manchester, get in touch with the team today. You can also keep up-to-date with us via Twitter and LinkedIn.