European Waste Reduction: Designed for Circularity
Winfried Muehling, Director of Marketing and Communications at Pro Carton
As Europe marks Waste Reduction Week, it’s the perfect moment to celebrate a packaging material that is circular by nature – cartonboard. Made from renewable, responsibly sourced fibres, cartons are designed for circularity and play a leading role in Europe’s transition toward a circular economy.
Consumers across Europe strongly support this circular approach. According to Pro Carton’s Consumer Packaging Perceptions Survey 2025, over half of the people surveyed have increased their recycling, and 77% believe more can be done to fight climate change. With such engagement and trust in Europe’s paper and cartonboard recycling systems, the foundation for further progress is strong.
Fibre-based packaging already sets the benchmark for sustainable packaging systems. With recycling rates exceeding 87% in 2023, paper and cartonboard are Europe’s recycling champions and proof that circular design and efficient recycling infrastructure work hand in hand. Each used carton becomes a valuable raw material for new paper and packaging, turning waste into a resource and closing the material loop.
Unlike fossil-based materials, cartonboard is renewable, helping reduce dependency on limited resources and lowering carbon emissions. Produced, used, and recycled largely within Europe, cartonboard supports local industries and jobs while minimising transport-related emissions. This European value chain exemplifies how sustainability and economic resilience can reinforce each other.
Innovation continues to push the boundaries of circular design- from mono-material packaging to smart, lightweight structures that reduce waste and costs. These advances show that economy and sustainability can coexist beautifully.
At Pro Carton, we believe that every folding carton collected, recycled, and remade brings us closer to a waste-free Europe and one that’s truly circular by nature.
Europe’s circular vision supported by sustainable packaging
Krzysztof Krajewski, Chief Sustainability and Innovation Officer at RDM
European Week for Waste Reduction is a critical moment to champion what the paper and cartonboard industry has been building for decades: a functioning circular system that operates at scale. At RDM Group we see this first hand, processing over 1.5 million tonnes of recovered paper annually, and transforming collected and recycled materials into high-quality packaging substrates with fibres strong enough to withstand more than 25 recycling loops.
The industry’s 87% recycling rate for the EU demonstrates that when materials are designed for circularity and supported by proper infrastructure, sustainable systems deliver strong results. As a producer of recycled cartonboard, we understand that circularity and waste reduction requires collaboration across the entire value chain – from design and production through to collection and reprocessing, as well as demand from the markets for recycled materials.
Innovation in the market also remains essential to open new markets, and have a direct impact on further increasing in recycling rates. We’re developing lighter-weight solutions, improving barrier technologies for food-safe applications, while maintaining recyclability properties, and working with partners to ensure packaging designs support the recycling process. But industry technology alone isn’t enough – consumer engagement, eco-packaging driven purchase decisions and trust in collection systems are equally vital to keeping materials in the loop. It is positive to see that this is growing across all key markets in Europe.
The transition to a circular Europe requires continued investment and further cooperation across industries. Packaging should not end its life as waste. It should be designed to return to the production cycle as high-quality raw material, closing the loop on valuable resources. Achieving this requires collaboration across the supply chain to develop circular solutions that increase recycling rates and drive greater demand for recycled materials. Fibre-based packaging has laid strong foundations for circularity, and initiatives such as European Week for Waste Reduction remind us why our work matters. Together, we can transform packaging from waste into a resource that drives innovation, sustainability, and value creation
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