As CPGs push harder on sustainable materials and formats, a growing share say the machinery on their lines can't keep up.
According to PMMI's The Ripple Effect: CPG Sustainability and the New OEM Spec Sheet white paper, roughly 55% of end users in 2026 agree that packaging machinery limitations are preventing them from accomplishing their sustainability goals. That figure has fluctuated but ultimately climbed across three research cycles: PMMI's 2022 Compass Report found 52% of end users cited machinery constraints as an obstacle, before the number dipped slightly to 50% in 2025 and then rose to its current high.
The trend runs counter to the assumption that equipment steadily improves against new demands. Instead, capabilities are not keeping pace with increasingly complex sustainability requirements. Recycled content, lightweighted substrates, and material substitutions are reshaping what lines must handle, and many machines already in service were never built for them.
Material difficulty is a recurring theme in interviews. "PET is a much more difficult material to manage. So, it impacts certain aspects of the design of the machine and a significant impact on the maintenance of the machine," an engineer at a CPG says.
Timing compounds the problem. When OEMs are brought into the materials decision late, they forfeit the chance to shape outcomes, and machinery ends up functioning as a barrier rather than a solution. Early visibility gives equipment builders room to assess feasibility, flag constraints, and recommend adjustments before a format is locked in.
For CPGs, the takeaway is that sustainability commitments and equipment planning can no longer sit in separate lanes. Treating machine capability as a core input to material decisions, rather than an afterthought discovered at start-up, is what separates a smooth transition from a stalled one.
SOURCE: 2026 The Ripple Effect: CPG Sustainability and the New OEM Spec Sheet
For more insights from PMMI's Business Intelligence team, find reports, including The Ripple Effect: CPG Sustainability and the New OEM Spec Sheet, Processing State of the Industry, Innovation for Packaging and Processing OEMs, and From Complexity to Capability at https://www.pmmi.org/business-intelligence.
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