Thermoformed packaging sits at the crossroads of cost, performance, and sustainability – and the next decade will be anything but business as usual. This session will combine key industry & market trends with the latest attempts to bring advanced physical & digital modeling to the thermoforming process, aka bringing science to the dark art. Carlin will distill the key market, technology, and regulatory forces shaping thermoformed packaging in North America, with a comparative lens on Europe. Furthermore, he will quantify the size and structure of the market, highlight where volume and margin are truly created (food, consumer goods, healthcare), and examine how consolidation, private equity, and global players are redefining competition.

The presentation will review the evolving materials landscape – PET/rPET, PP, PS, PLA, molded fiber – and some of the economics behind recycled content, imports, and EPR/PPWR-driven design choices. We will also explore how automation, digitalization, and emerging AI tools are shifting the cost base and capabilities of thermoformers, including how we address the perennial skills challenges in plastics manufacturing.