Smurfit Kappa has called on the world’s innovation community to contribute to the development of future sustainable packaging solutions. 

The packaging company has launched a new competition as part of its drive to solve one of the biggest challenges in the packaging industry: to reduce the amount of non-recyclable waste that is generated every day.

Smurfit Kappa is challenging designers, engineers, inventors and creative thinkers, both inside and outside the company, to come up with packaging innovations that will replace the amount of non-recyclable waste generated every year. The two challenges outlined in the competition are:

The competition is open until Friday, March 29, and applicants, who can be any innovator in the world, can submit an idea to address one or both of the design challenges. The winner of each design challenge will receive a prize of 8,000 euro and their ideas will be showcased at the Smurfit Kappa Innovation Event in May 2019. 

“Packaging design has an essential role to play in reducing the amount of waste generated in day-to-day life and in delivering a more sustainable future,” said Arco Berkenbosch, vice president of innovation and development, in a statement. “Our Better Planet Packaging Design Challenge aims to inspire the world's design community to work on concrete problems in sustainable packaging design. We are looking forward to seeing the applications and discovering the first winning innovations of the Better Planet Packaging Design Challenge.”

2019 will be the inaugural year of the Better Planet Packaging Design Challenge. The competition is a key part of Smurfit Kappa’s Better Planet Packaging initiative. Launched in September 2018, it is at the heart of Smurfit Kappa’s core business strategy and aims to deliver breakthroughs that will reimagine packaging for a more sustainable future, according to the company.