Packaging of the Future brings together 79 entities – companies, R&D laboratories, and universities – to transform the Portuguese packaging sector through sustainable, digital, and inclusive innovation. This initiative spans the entire value chain—from raw materials to design, engineering, manufacturing, digital systems, and recycling. It aims to create market-ready, eco-efficient packaging solutions on a global scale.

The project aims to develop nineteen new products, process and services (PPR) and more than a dozen new production lines that combine innovative technologies for the production of sustainable packaging. LiDA researchers are designing two new lines of products:

260g bottle – New and More Sustainable Glass Packaging (PPS4)

The 260g bottle is the lightest wine bottle in the world. It was designed to be significantly lighter and made with up to 80% recycled glass, reducing the need for raw materials. Its shape takes full advantage of Vidrala’s advanced technology to create bottles with extremely thin walls. By approaching the minimum geometric form required for a wine bottle, the design reduces the glass surface area by 20% compared with a standard bottle. This enables a reduction of more than 30% in the amount of glass used in a typical 75cl bottle. Its compact shape also allows 115 more bottles per pallet, a 7% transport efficiency gain.

Altogether, these innovations reduce carbon emissions by around 40%. The launch edition of the 260g bottle was presented at Expo 2025 Osaka, showcasing a vision of the future of glass packaging, lighter, more efficient, and more environmentally sustainable.

This project was developed in collaboration between LiDA  and Santos Barosa, a century-old Portuguese glass manufacturer of the Vidrala Group.

Lightweight wooden packaging for food industry (PPS9)

Containers, boxes and packaging are an essential tool for the distribution, storage and consumption/marketing of fruit and vegetables. As in other business sectors, these “vessels” have a significant impact on the quality and value attributed to the final product, sometimes going unnoticed by the end consumer.

LiDA is developing two product lines: Range 1: Monofoil packaging without binding elements; Range 2: Boxes for transporting lightweight wooden food packaging, made from recycled monofoil production waste.

The first range deals with the development of a single-use packaging made of poplar wood for the food industry, without using glue our other fixing elements, and having a capacity of 500g. This range envisages four specific uses for the packaging: mushrooms; seafood; pastries/bread; and small-volume fruit – i.e. raspberries.

The second range is divided into two reusable packages with different capacities (12 kg and 1kg-3 kg) for transporting, storing and displaying food. The largest capacity packaging is collapsible, stackable and produced mostly in wood agglomerate – based on residues from the veneering of poplar trunks – using other elements necessary for its full operation, hygiene and durability. The smaller-capacity container is made from the same chipboard as the previous one, but is only assemblable and stackable, ruling out the use of other materials other than wood.

This project was developed in a collaboration between LiDA  and  Freshwood, a packaging company that manufactures lightweight wood packaging for the fruit and vegetable sector.

Packaging of the Future is led by VANGEST and managed by NERLEI Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Leiria region in Portugal, and by INOVA+, a leading innovation consulting company. Supported by the NextGenerationEU through Portugal’s Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR).