U.S. Flexible Packaging Keeps on Growing Through Headwinds
FPA’s Dan Felton reports steady growth and rising profitability amid a sense of watchful tension as new state EPR laws roll out that will directly affect how brands design and source packaging.
Dan Felton, FPA president and CEO, outlines the recovery challenges facing flexible packaging—including limited curbside access and lack of end markets—during the association’s 2025 State of the Industry presentation.
At the 2025 FlexForward Conference in New Orleans, Flexible Packaging Association president and CEO Dan Felton offered a data-driven look at how the U.S. flexible packaging industry performed in 2024, and where it’s headed next.
By the numbers, the total U.S. packaging market is now valued at $213.4 billion, with flexible packaging accounting for 20% of that total. Corrugated still holds the lead, but Felton said he expects flexible packaging to close the gap. Food applications remain the dominant driver at 44.5% of flexible packaging demand, followed by medical and pharmaceutical at around 17%. Within the food sector, shelf-stable goods, salty snacks, confectionery, and produce represent the largest uses. These core segments, Felton said, remain consistent year over year, reflecting flexible packaging’s strength in products that require barrier performance, durability, and efficient shipping.U.S. flexible packaging used by food, breakdown by category, with Shelf Stable Goods at 30.2%FPA
A new economic study prepared for FPA by John Dunham & Associates measures flexible packaging’s footprint across jobs, wages, and output. The analysis estimates 98,000 U.S. manufacturing jobs tied directly to flexible packaging, with $8.7 billion in wages and $51.5 billion in direct output. When indirect and induced impacts are included, the industry’s total economic contribution climbs to $151 billion.
Felton said the new data, based on updated modeling, will replace earlier figures that understated the sector’s reach. “We can confidently say we’re actually a $151 billion industry,” he said.
Financially, converters saw a rebound in profitability last year. In 2024, profit before taxes for flexible packaging converters rose above the average for all U.S. manufacturing. Member surveys show most companies expect continued revenue and volume growth through 2028, reflecting cautious confidence despite economic and policy headwinds.
Sustainability continues to define both converter strategy and brand-owner demand. Survey data show strong adoption of recycle-ready structures, post-consumer recycled (PCR) content, and compostable materials, with respondents predicting these will remain priority areas over the next three years.Seven U.S. states have current EPR laws: California, Colorado, Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, Oregon, Washington. Oregon is fully in effect and Colorado begins January 2026.FPA
“Sustainability is a big part of the state of the industry report,” Felton said. “It’s what people are doing today and what they think they’re going to be doing in the future.”
Packaging extended producer responsibility (EPR) laws have now been enacted in seven states—California, Colorado, Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, Oregon, and Washington. Oregon’s program is already in effect, and Colorado’s begins in early 2026.
Felton emphasized that the laws differ widely in structure and impact. “They all treat materials differently and they certainly all treat flexibles differently,” he said. “I see a good path forward in Oregon to address flexibles and how to get more of it back. California has a different approach.”2024 U.S. Packaging Market Breakdown: Corrugated, Flexible, Paperboard, and Other SegmentsFPA
He expects several additional states to pass similar legislation within the next few years, with FPA engaging closely in each.
On the recycling technology front, 25 states now explicitly allow advanced, molecular, or chemical recycling, now often referred to as non-mechanical recycling. Some of this permissive attitude is due to its classification manufacturing rather than waste management—a distinction Felton called essential for scaling film recovery and enabling recycled content in food-contact packaging. From a gut perspective, "manufactured" packaging is more palatable for food-contact products than "managed waste" used for the same purpose.
But other states including Maryland, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, and Vermont are weighing restrictions or even bans (though no bans have occurred yet) that would prevent advanced recycling from counting toward recyclability or recycled-content targets.
“It’s important that advanced recycling can exist in the United States, whether it’s in a standalone law or part of extended producer responsibility,” Felton said.
California’s Senate Bill 343, governing recyclability claims and labeling, takes effect in 2026. Felton described it as an example of how state-by-state approaches can create compliance confusion.
“There’s some incongruity between the EPR law and the labeling law,” he said. To avoid a patchwork of inconsistent rules, FPA and more than 40 other trade associations are backing the proposed federal Packaging and Claims Knowledge (PACK) Act, which would establish uniform national standards for recyclability, compostability, and reusability claims. This data signals where converters are investing and innovating, aligning with brand-owner sustainability goals and upcoming regulatory expectations.FPA
Recycled-content mandates are spreading as well. Five states—including California, Maine, New Jersey, and Washington—have enacted requirements for PCR content in certain packaging types. For now, flexible films remain mostly exempt, but Felton warned that “it’s only a matter of time” before some states expand those mandates.
Felton pointed to several bipartisan measures in Congress—the Recycling Infrastructure and Accessibility Act, Recycling and Composting Accountability Act, and the combined STEWARD and CIRCLE Acts—as positive steps toward improving national recycling infrastructure. He described them as “good bipartisan, common-sense public policy” that could help modernize collection systems and expand recycling access.Challenges to flexible packaging paired with opportunities for solutions. FPA
Felton characterized flexible packaging as “a hard-to-recycle product” in the current state of American recycling infrastructure, and it remains constrained by limited curbside access, nascent store drop-off networks, and immature end markets. He argued that the industry must show “proof of concept and scalable solutions” for collection, sorting, and reuse. “Recycling’s not recycling if something doesn’t happen with that thing that got recycled to become something else,” he said.
To that end, FPA is collaborating with the newly formed Flexible Film Recycling Alliance (FFRA), the increasingly omnipresent PRO Circular Action Alliance (CAA), and other groups to expand recovery infrastructure and develop viable markets for reclaimed material. FFRA, launched in 2024, has completed its first year of initiatives focused on data collection and consumer education. "Industry continues to grow despite packaging and plastic backlash. Need to continue to work on closing the circularity loop," Felton said today.FPA
Even amid policy uncertainty and public scrutiny, the flexible packaging industry remains healthy, innovative, and indispensable to consumer goods, Felton says.
“We’re all in this together,” Felton said. "Industry continues to grow despite packaging and plastic backlash. We need to continue to work on closing the circularity loop while promoting and protecting the value of sustainable flexible packaging," adding "the future is flexible."
U.S. flexible packaging used by food, breakdown by category, with Shelf Stable Goods at 30.2%FPA
Seven U.S. states have current EPR laws: California, Colorado, Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, Oregon, Washington. Oregon is fully in effect and Colorado begins January 2026.FPA
