How Collaboration Will Define Success in Healthcare Packaging
Sustainability in healthcare packaging continues to be a trending industry driver for innovation, and rightfully so. As regulatory pressure increases and expectations around circular and low carbon solutions grow, the industry faces a critical question:
How can healthcare packaging become more sustainable without compromising safety, performance, or compliance?
We recently sat down with Shahin Sandino, Director of Global Sustainability at Oliver, to explore industry’s challenges and opportunities when it comes to sustainability.
What is your background, and how did you come to focus on sustainability in the healthcare packaging industry?
My career has been built around packaging materials, particularly polyolefins, which are widely used across food packaging, medical devices, and healthcare applications. Over the years, I’ve had the opportunity to work closely with leading global healthcare companies, giving me a strong, hands-on understanding of both material performance and the regulatory landscape that governs healthcare packaging.
While leading healthcare and pharmaceutical packaging businesses, I focused on strategic marketing, innovation, and building partnerships across the value-chain, especially in high-value applications like medical devices. This experience shaped how I think about the intersection of materials, performance, and compliance.
I started working on developing circular business models through both mechanical and chemical recycling in 2015. These models involved technology assessments, developing scalable business models, and long-term strategic positioning I particularly focused on circular and low-carbon portfolios, and how circularity could be embedded into existing polyolefin value chains.
Bringing all of this together, naturally led me to focus on sustainability in healthcare packaging. It’s an area where I see significant opportunities to drive meaningful change.
What are your general thoughts on sustainability and the healthcare packaging industry?
Sustainability is often framed as a pure value proposition but based on my experience, it also involves risks that the industry needs to address jointly and mitigate alongside value creation models. There are increasing regulatory requirements and compliance costs which leads to operational complexities. If these complexities are not addressed effectively and in sync with industry requirements, they can slow down much needed innovation and transformation.
In your opinion, what is the biggest challenge in achieving sustainable healthcare packaging?
One of the biggest challenges is that healthcare packaging has not yet been fully integrated into major sustainability directives and frameworks. For example, many frameworks, such as the EU’s Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR), focus predominantly on food-contact and consumer packaging space, while partially or provisionally exempting healthcare packaging applications. This increases uncertainty and associated risks. But it also provides the industry with the opportunity to develop a transition roadmap and identify fundamental solutions to complex regulatory requirements. As regulatory compliance expectations continue to build, healthcare packaging should focus more on developing strategies as to how to transition from a linear model to a circular or low-carbon model. The difficulty is that healthcare packaging must meet stringent requirements:
- Sterility and safety
- Regulatory compliance
- Material consistency and predictability
Balancing these with sustainability goals is not only complex, but it also requires collaboration and innovative solutions. It’s not just a materials issue; it’s an industry wide challenge.
What needs to happen to enable more circularity in healthcare packaging?
The industry needs predictability. Companies need confidence that sustainable materials and processes will perform consistently to meet regulatory requirements. Historically, the healthcare packaging industry has been slow to adopt new practices, which makes sense when patient safety is at stake. Predictability will be what enables industry to move faster, which will be critical when it comes to sustainability.
Why is collaboration so important in sustainable healthcare packaging?
Collaboration is critical for successful transformation because the healthcare industry is intertwined and complex. No single company can successfully bring forward systematic change without wider collaboration. The more the industry collaborates, the faster it can develop solutions that are both safe and sustainable.
Do you have any other thoughts around sustainability that you want to share?
I believe the transition to more sustainable healthcare packaging will only happen with collaboration. It requires collective action across the value chain and the wider industry. The companies that are willing to collaborate, share knowledge, and align on standards will be those who will accelerate progress. I really believe when it comes to sustainability it is not a competition, it’s a shared responsibility.
