Attendees at this year’s Global Pouch Forum will be in for a treat as we use the event’s 25th anniversary to explore the history and evolution of the pouch.

Remember the optimism heading into 2021? Vaccines were on their way. Factories were opening back up. We knew there were issues with the supply chain, but a problem recognized is a problem that can be solved. Yeah … good times.

A Freedonia Group forecast from May expects the demand for printed labels to rise 3.2% per year through 2025. The organization found that “printed labels will benefit from the increased utilization of labels for advanced product promotion, which will drive the use of more appealing, 360-degree coverage and more complex, high-quality graphics.”

I wish I were a smarter person. That’s not a self-deprecating statement, either, because I wish I were smart enough to specifically do one thing: make being a recycler profitable.

As the packaging industry continues to grow in order to keep up with the boom in e-commerce, so too does the market for packaging inks. And, like everything in the industry, there are efforts to improve sustainability but still meet functional needs and consumer safety requirements.

Do you remember what your first packaging experience with a pouch was? For me, like it might be for many people, it was with Capri Sun. I don’t remember exactly where I was, but I do remember wondering what the heck it was and then proceeding to drive my straw into the front and straight out the back.

We’ve said this, we’ve written this: We here at Flexible Packaging are tired of covering the pandemic just as much as you’re tired of hearing about it. The problem is that its effects continue to ripple throughout world and we all continue to be impacted by those waves.

The pandemic was the big story last year, and there’s some speculation that this year’s big story will be cost increases because of it. Doesn’t it feel like whenever we finally seem to be getting close to talking about something other than the pandemic, we get hit with yet another new ripple effect from it?

Last month, Glen Gudino, Flexible Packaging’s publisher, and I had a chat with Dennis Calamusa, president and CEO of Alliedflex. It was a wide-ranging discussion that at one point turned toward the topic of a circular economy.

Regular readers would know that the featured topic last month was about the advances in sustainability within the flexible packaging industry.