As Amcor continues investing in early-stage packaging innovations, the company wants to focus on material solutions applicable to a future with both recycling and composting infrastructure.
“‘Dual end of life,’ will be the right keyword, so compostable and recyclable, to be able to fit into as many end-of-life streams as possible,” explained Rebecca Meile, manager of corporate venturing and open innovation at Amcor. “This is really the goal of what we're looking at now.”
Amcor is again running its Lift-Off Challenge, which invites startups to submit specific types of packaging solutions for the chance to achieve joint development and a potential company investment of up to $500,000.
The current solicitation seeks solutions through Dec. 12 related to “critical research and development priorities for flexible and paper-based packaging” in three categories: home-compostable adhesives, high-performance compostable oxygen transmission rate barriers, and nature-based barrier additives for film formulation. This continues Amcor’s focus on coating and barrier innovation.
These are long-term plays. “It's not the materials that are going to go out tomorrow,” Meile said.
Other considerations include innovations that can be used in hot and humid environments. Amcor is mindful of solutions that could fall outside of plastics regulations, Meile said.
The focus on paper and compostables comes as these represent a relatively small share of the company’s packaging portfolio.
According to Amcor’s most recent annual sustainability report, 9% of its production revenue in fiscal year 2025 was fiber, while 76% was plastics and 15% was metal. Additionally, a section of the report covering recently acquired company Berry Global showed that less than 1% of the volume of Berry’s fast-moving consumer goods packaging was compostable.
“Industrial composting infrastructure is frequently unavailable in markets where compostable packages are sold,” Amcor also acknowledged in the report.
As for early-stage companies that Amcor has previously worked with through Lift-Off, Meile said the company is “working closely with a number of them,” including by testing materials, thinking about scaling in a more industrial environment and offering regulatory advice. “Getting things from lab scale to Amcor scale, it's a big difference,” Meile said.
“We're very keen to work with these companies and help them and promote them as much as we can,” she said, noting that Amcor has minority investments in Lift-Off companies but is not currently looking to acquire them.
