Supply chain & logistics The growing impact of sustainable cold chain packaging
Environmental impact The pharmaceutical industry generates approximately 300,000 tonnes of plastic waste annually, with about half
originating from single-use packaging solutions. Source: Pharmaceutical Technology
Sustainability initiatives
The reusable cold chain packaging market is projected to more than double in size by 2034,
driven by industry-wide adoption. Source: Towards Packaging
Regulatory alignment
Good distribution practices (GDP) emphasise the importance of coordination, collaboration and continuous quality improvement to ensure
patient safety and product quality. Source: Quality Matters
<1079> requirements. The industry’s operational DNA has been shaped by decades of risk-averse decision-making: proven materials, validated shippers and lane data take precedence over any untested alternative,” Rogerson explains.
Another factor that has played a decisive role is cost, Rogerson adds: “Procurement teams are tasked with controlling spend, so even where sustainable options exist, they’re often judged on unit price rather than total cost of ownership. And sustainability? For most of the past two decades, it has been an add-on – considered only if it doesn’t compromise the other two priorities.” This mindset creates a powerful inertia. Once a packaging format is validated, entire networks are built around it – qualification records, supplier contracts and risk management plans. Changing any single component can ripple through multiple departments, making decision-makers cautious. The irony is that while this conservatism protects against risk, it can also delay the adoption of innovations that would lower cost and improve environmental performance in the long run. In the pharmaceutical industry, overengineering is a virtue. Historically, packaging design has prioritised stability above all else – ensuring products arrive unspoiled, regardless of environmental conditions or transport hiccups. In temperature-sensitive shipments, that often means bulky polystyrene boxes, multi-layer plastic insulation and generous helpings of gel packs or dry ice.
And yet, this ultra-conservative approach has created a mountain of waste. According to Rogerson, the rise of direct-to-consumer pharma and health tech start-ups has only accelerated the problem. “A huge barrier is what I call copy-paste compliance,” he says. “Regulations are often lifted wholesale from one market to another without the matching infrastructure
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to meet them. The result? On paper, a shipper must be ‘100% recyclable’, but in reality, the receiving market has no facility to process its insulation or PCMs.” The environmental consequences are now stark:
globally, packaging accounts for around 30% of municipal solid waste, and only 10% is recycled into new products. Insulated shipping containers are mostly single-use and – according to life-cycle studies – produce up to 95% more packing waste than reusable alternatives.
Rethinking the end game It’s easy to frame the discussion as a tug-of-war between performance and planet. After all, pharmaceutical products can’t tolerate failure. The stakes are simply too high. But experts are pushing back on the idea that sustainability and suitability are fundamentally opposed. But the real issue isn’t necessarily the lack of technology, but more the consumer mindset of the pharmaceutical industry. The industry isn’t lacking in materials or design, and we have the data to know the extent of the issue at hand, yet there still remains a fear of regulation and an emphasis on risk aversion. “In theory, GDP and USP standards are technology- neutral, but in practice, the path to approval is anything but,” Rogerson explains. “Any change to a thermal shipper must be backed by validation evidence – lane simulations, stability data, OQ/PQ records – proving it is equal or superior to the incumbent system. That’s expensive and time-sensitive.”
The good news? Innovation is closing the gap. New materials – like bio-based foams and vacuum insulation panels – can match or exceed traditional packaging performance, while significantly reducing environmental impact. But perhaps more transformative is the use of AI and real-time data to design and deploy packaging more precisely. According to a 2024 article published in the International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment, life- cycle assessments (LCAs) are increasingly vital in evaluating packaging. In clinical packaging, reuse models reduce environmental impacts by 49% to 82%, compared with single-use equivalents, even when wash and reuse processes incur some emissions. Meanwhile, innovative containers use high- efficiency materials and modular design to reduce emissions while increasing payload efficiency. Recyclable active containers slash CO2
emissions
thanks to better volumetric efficiency and lower return logistics burden. Yet, as Rogerson emphasises, the biggest hurdle isn’t technological, but structural. “The deeper barrier is misalignment,” he explains. “If marketing is promising recyclability that the receiving market can’t deliver, or procurement is chasing unit price while QA insists on gold-standard thermal performance, the ‘materials problem’ will never be solved.”
www.worldpharmaceuticals.net
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