Since 2015, the German Packaging Institute has published the results of a survey to celebrate Packaging Day (11 June) and raise public awareness of packaging.

Other contributors in 2026 included  Aluminium Deutschland, Flexible Packaging Europe, Die Papierindustrie, Bundesverband Glasindustrie, Industrievereinigung Kunststoffverpackungen, Die Wellpappenindustrie, Verband Metallverpackungen, Allianz Verpackung und Umwelt, DFTA Flexodruck Fachverband, Fachverband Faltschachtel-Industrie, und  Industrieverband Papier- und Folienverpackungen.

This year’s survey focused on thirteen expectations that packaging is expected to meet in everyday life.

Respondents were asked to rank their personal top five priorities in a packaging design. Most pointed to hygiene (37.6%), ease of opening, use and resealing (33.1%), protecting the product from damage (32.6%) and extending its shelf life (32.1%).

Yet the broader public expectations of packaging yielded different results. Recyclability was the top result among all thirteen functions and attributes featured in the survey, with almost half (48%) of all respondents considering it one of the five most important expectations of packaging.

This was followed by the efficient use of packaging materials (40.3%). Other sustainability-related priorities to reach the overall top five included minimizing the environmental impact (36.1%) and, where environmentally and practically appropriate, reusability (33.3%).

“The results clearly show that sustainability and the circular economy remain highly important to people in Germany,” commented Dr Natalie Brandenburg, managing director at the German Packaging Institute. “Packaging has traditionally played a prominent role in this context because it is something we use and interact with every day.

“The fact that four of the five most important expectations relate to sustainability and the circular economy sends a strong message. At the same time, consumers recognize the essential role packaging plays in protecting products and ensuring hygiene and safety. These findings confirm that packaging continues to have a clear mandate in fulfilling these core functions.”

When asked how well packaging fulfils its functions and meets everyday expectations, the highest satisfaction scores went to hygiene, with 81.7% of respondents rating performance as good or very good. Other responses included protecting products from damage (78.1%) and extending shelf life (70.3%).

Almost seven in ten respondents said that packaging provides them with good or very good information (69.6%) and helps them identify products on the shelf when shopping (68.3%).

“Only a slim majority of respondents (52.5%) rate the ease of opening, use and resealing as good or very good,” Brandenburg continued. “While just 12.9% consider packaging to perform poorly or very poorly in this regard, that still falls short of our industry’s ambitions. Effective solutions already exist, but they may need to be adopted more consistently.

“Only 35.6% of respondents rate the efficient use of packaging materials as good or very good. This is the lowest score among all 13 aspects and is genuinely concerning, because the reality is quite different.

“Today, significantly less material and fewer resources are required to package products than in the past. As an industry, we need to communicate this progress much more clearly.”

Over two-thirds of respondents were found to underestimate the proportion of collected and recycled packaging. Only 31.2% correctly estimated that glass packaging has exceeded a recycling