Pitch your smart product
At Empack on Wednesday 15 April 2026, smart packaging will take centre stage during the ‘Pitch Your Smart Product’ competition.
Six promising innovations have now been selected from all the entries submitted by packaging professionals. These companies will present their smart packaging in a 10-minute pitch live to a panel of industry experts and the public. Based on criteria such as sustainability, efficiency, scalability, manufacturability and readiness for implementation, they will compete for the title of most groundbreaking smart packaging of 2026.
Theme: smart packaging
This edition of Pitch Your Product is all about smart packaging. We’re looking for products that have been developed or applied in a clever way. This could include innovative technology such as smart packaging with sensors and QR codes, as well as smart and sustainable design choices that reduce waste, optimise material use, improve logistics or enhance the user experience. And everything in between. So if you have packaging featuring smart technology or a smart design: we want to see it!
Participants
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle (Dutch)
Marius Beune | Omnium Artium Consulting at Rotoprint srl
An innovative gravure printing technique makes it possible to apply corrections or updates to pre-printed packaging materials – such as rolls, flat sheets, doypacks and sleeves – in a highly targeted, rapid and localised manner. As a result, entire batches containing printing errors or outdated information do not need to be destroyed, but can be ‘updated’ and reused. This saves costs, prevents the waste of raw materials and is immediately scalable from a few rolls to multiple containers, on a variety of substrates.
De Blikjeskrat (Dutch)
Thomas Brouwer | owner of Eco Recycling Cans
The Blikjeskrat is a circular logistics packaging solution made from recycled plastic that replaces disposable plastic bags and prevents leaks, specifically designed for the efficient transport of returnable cans. With a registered patent, initial prototypes and a crowdfunding campaign already underway, the concept is ready to scale up within the professional packaging sector at Empack.
ELVIS, the fully reusable alternative to pallet wrap (Dutch)
Johan Bonner | co-founder at Return2Sender(.co)
ELVIS is a reusable pallet wrap that structurally replaces single-use stretch film and reduces plastic waste and CO₂ emissions by up to 95%. The Eumos-certified wrap provides highly stable load securing, is quicker to use than film and is produced locally in a Belgian social enterprise. The system is already being tested in existing logistics chains with return flows and can be integrated immediately, including services for tracking, maintenance and reuse.
E4 pallet wrapping with our LiteWrapperXT® (Dutch)
John van Haarlem | Sales Manager at EVC Verpakking
With the LiteWrapperXT®, pallets can be wrapped by hand in an ergonomic, environmentally friendly, efficient and cost-effective manner: walking forwards, using just one hand and without bending over. The 9.5 µm film performs like 20 µm film, delivering a film saving of over 50%; it is core-free and contains 30% PCR. Thanks to reduced physical effort, constant film tension and 400 metres of film per roll, more pallets can be wrapped per roll, with fewer roll changes and lower overall costs.
Scaling Xampla's Morro Coating
Harnessing the power of natural plant polymers to eliminate plastic
Jasmin Bannister | Marketing Manager at Xampla
Morro™ Coating is a plastic-free, fully biodegradable and home-compostable barrier coating based on natural plant polymers, free from PE, PLA and PFAS. It offers excellent grease, oxygen and water barrier properties without fossil-fuel-based materials and has been verified as plastic-free and recycling-friendly in standard paper mills. Designed to biodegrade in all environments and to meet industrial and home compostability standards, Morro™ Coating is already used in a corrugated takeaway box launched with Just Eat Takeaway.com, Bunzl and Huhtamaki, directly addressing the 40% of plastic waste that comes from packaging.
‘PapairWrap – the bubble wrap made entirely of papair’ (ENG)
Anke Thies | Marketing Manager bij Papair
PapairWrap is a bubble wrap made entirely from paper-based Papair that can replace conventional plastic bubble wrap one-to-one. In the context of PPWR and the urgent need for sustainable packaging, PapairWrap enables companies not only to switch to a recyclable, paper-based alternative, but also to optimise their packaging processes and reduce both material and handling costs.
The process
1.
Submit your product
Describe your smart packaging and tell us why it deserves attention
2.
Selection by the jury
Our expert panel will assess all entries and select up to 10 promising products
3.
Pitch at Empack
The selected companies will have the opportunity to pitch their product live in 10 minutes
The assessment criteria
Sustainability
Efficiency
Scalability
Social engineering
Readiness for implementation
Do you want to pitch?
Please fill in the form and we will contact you as soon as possible on behalf of the committee.