Michigan State Launches Center to Tackle Packaging Waste

This article appeared in the July 2025 issue of Resource Recycling. Subscribe today for access to all print content.

The new facility aims to develop innovative solutions for plastic and paper packaging end-of-life challenges.

In another industry-leading move, Michigan State University’s (MSU) School of Packaging launched a new center dedicated to plastic, paper and hybrid packaging innovations, bringing together research and industry to speed development along.

The Center for Plastic, Paper and Hybrid Packaging End-of-Life Solutions (C3PS) focuses on managing packaging at its end-of-life stage. Through pre-competitive research, the center seeks to address the environmental challenges posed by plastic and coated paper packaging, while also strengthening the competitiveness of U.S. manufacturers in the global market. It’s funded by a five-year grant from the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF).

C3PS is NSF’s first industry-university cooperative research center focused on pre-competitive packaging research. The center is led by Professor Muhammad Rabnawaz, who was recently elected as a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors in recognition of his portfolio of more than 70 technologies.

Advancing research and education

The MSU School of Packaging, established in 1952, holds the distinction of being the first academic institution in the United States dedicated exclusively to packaging science, and is still the only school in the nation to offer a Ph.D. in Packaging Science, underscoring its long-standing leadership in packaging education and innovation.

“The School of Packaging at MSU is widely recognized as a foundational force in the industry, with nearly 50% of U.S. packaging professionals counted among its alumni — a witness to its deep and lasting impact on the field,” Rabnawaz explained. “MSU’s School of Packaging remains at the forefront — educating the next generation of experts and driving transformative research for the industry.”

To meet the evolving and increasing demand for packaging research and education, MSU completed Phase I of a major renovation initiative in early 2023, modernizing its instructional and research infrastructure. Phase II, now underway, will double the school’s research capacity and bring in additional faculty, further strengthening MSU’s position as a global leader in packaging science and innovation.

“The goal of C3PS is to bring together experts in packaging, materials science, AI/machine learning, biodegradation, manufacturing, recycling, regulatory science and social sciences to solve complex packaging challenges that are beyond the scope of individual or small-group efforts, or too risky for industry members to tackle alone,” Rabnawaz added.

Furthermore, the center aims to address immediate, midterm and long-term needs of the packaging industry. The center draws its strength from its 24 faculty experts from eight universities with expertise in plastic, paper and hybrid packaging across the value chain. 

“C3PS sets itself apart from other packaging research initiatives through its unique collaborative model,” Rabnawaz said. “The center derives its strength from the premier packaging program at MSU and the leading paper and pulp manufacturing program at Western Michigan University (WMU).”

Research challenges are proposed by industry members, solutions are developed by academic researchers, and industry members vote on which proposals receive funding and mentorship. This industry-university collaboration ensures that the solutions are holistic, rooted in real-world needs and focused on practical, applied outcomes. All intellectual property generated through the center is made available to industry members on a royalty-free basis.

“It is fortuitous given the current administration’s drive towards supporting technologies and manufacturing in the U.S., as that’s what this center focuses on,” said Ramani Narayan, the co-principal investigator of C3PS, who helped develop the initial proposal of the center. “The key here is that the center is focusing on renewable resources and creating value-added industrial uses for farm and forestry products for packaging.”

Addressing challenges

The center focuses on developing solutions with strong potential for commercialization, as the challenges it tackles are defined by industry members, Rabnawaz explained.

“We are developing foundational technologies that member companies can integrate into their production line to create market-ready products,” he said. “For example, one of the challenges the center will work on includes developing novel barrier paper and plastic-based packaging materials that meet gas and moisture barrier requirements while being recyclable, biodegradable within existing systems and cost-competitive.”

Narayan added that one of the early projects is centered on bio-based polymer molecules that can be used as coatings on paper that would not interfere with the recycling of paper.

BioElements Group, a leading sustainable packaging company in Latin America with U.S. operations in Houston, recently entered into a partnership with MSU’s School of Packaging to test the biodegradation for sustainable packaging and help solve the challenge. Ybelisse Azocar, head of science for the company, noted C3PS will play a strategic role in the generation of technical and regulatory knowledge.

“In a sector where sustainability still faces technical and scalability challenges, having an institution dedicated to the characterization, certification and continuous improvement of compostable materials is key to ensuring that our solutions not only meet environmental standards, but are also technically and economically viable,” she said. “Investigations have the potential to set new benchmarks for the global packaging industry because of their credible data and validated solutions.”

Funding matters

C3PS is supported under NSF’s Industry–University Cooperative Research Centers (IUCRC) program, which enables long-term partnerships between academia and industry. The IUCRC model is designed to strengthen U.S. manufacturing and innovation capacity, aligning with priorities emphasized by the current administration to revitalize American industry and enhance competitiveness, according to the NSF. This model provides critical seed funding from the NSF to establish and grow centers like C3PS while requiring active industry engagement and co-investment.

“C3PS directly supports this mission by developing advanced packaging technologies that help U.S. companies remain globally competitive, environmentally responsible and economically resilient,” Rabnawaz said. “NSF funding primarily supports administrative, planning and coordination functions. In contrast, center membership fees are used to cover research expenses. It’s a unique and effective model that shares the burden of innovation across industry members.”

For example, if a company contributes $50,000 per year and there are 30 member companies, the center supports approximately $1.5 million in research annually. This enables the funding of 15–20 research projects each year, allowing both the risks and rewards to be shared among industry members.

“With $300,000 per year in NSF support, the center facilitates research worth $1.5 million annually and simultaneously helps develop the domestic STEM workforce for U.S. manufacturing,” Rabnawaz explained. “Thus, with minimal NSF investment, the center not only advances critical research but also strengthens American manufacturers and builds a skilled technical workforce.”

The center became operational in April 2025, after the funding grant was secured. There are currently 10 industry members. “We have observed incredible interest from the industry,” Rabnawaz added. “We have been approached by large and medium-sized companies that want to understand the center’s operation model and have shown interest in joining the center.”

When a company joins the center, it gains access to a range of benefits including royalty-free, non-exclusive intellectual property for all research conducted at the center, leverage for R&D spend with a $25,000 to $50,000 annual membership enabling multiple research projects, access to data and reports, a skilled workforce, expertise and lab facilities of over 24 faculty members.

After securing intellectual property through patent filing and ensuring that the needs and interests of industry members are protected, the center will disseminate research findings through multiple channels. These include academic conferences, Pack Expo presentations, peer-reviewed journals, industry magazines and a regular newsletter, ensuring broad visibility and impact among industry practitioners and policymakers.

Developing a skilled workforce in packaging manufacturing

C3PS has a comprehensive three-fold strategy to prepare the workforce for the U.S. economy, particularly in the area of sustainable packaging manufacturing.

For instance, graduate students engaged in C3PS-funded research projects will work closely with professors and industry mentors. This collaboration ensures that trainees gain hands-on experience with real-world challenges and solutions, making them highly prepared for careers in the sustainable packaging and manufacturing sectors.

“There will also be cross-campus training and rotational opportunities,” Rabnawaz said. “We will have a rotation policy that allows students from participating campuses to visit and train at MSU and WMU. These visits provide students with exposure to state-of-the-art plastic and paper materials to manufacturing to end of life solutions, thus offering experiential learning that bridges classroom knowledge with industrial practices.”

The IUCRC program also provides access to special funding opportunities for undergraduate students, helping to create a strong STEM talent pipeline for the U.S. economy. In addition, it is developing short courses specifically tailored for industry professionals. “These programs are designed to upskill the existing workforce and ensure they are equipped with the expertise needed to thrive in a rapidly evolving packaging industry,” he added.

The voice of the industry

The new center is the talk of the sustainable packaging world in 2025.

Melissa Walker, CEO and founder of Thriving Sustainably, a platform focused on microplastics and plastic reduction, noted centers like C3PS are essential because they focus on what truly matters — what happens to packaging after people are done with it. She added that 36% of all plastic produced globally is used for packaging, and most plastic polluting the environment comes from single-use packaging.

“Despite the volume, only about 9% of plastic worldwide is recycled,” she said. “We need research that critically examines how packaging performs at the end of its life, not just theory, but real data that can shape practical solutions.”

She sees the collaborative component as being the most critical thing for success. “The industry understands the daily packaging pressures, including performance, cost and logistics, and academia brings the research and testing capacity to explore what is possible, but neither can solve this on their own,” Walker said. “Centers like C3PS will help close that gap by offering companies access to practical testing and unbiased insights. That kind of collaboration is what we need to design packaging that is not just innovative but also functional, scalable and recyclable.”

Brian Wagner, co-founder of PTIS, a consultancy company focused on adding value through packaging, is in talks with the leadership of C3PS about being a liaison collaborator.

“They are focusing on making some of these multimaterials monomaterial, where they can be recyclable, adding variables to flexibles, and the benefit is that they have a lot of industry leaders involved, which can help scale some of the research, which can help accelerate the speed to market,” he said.

David Murgio, chief sustainability officer for Concord Township, Ohio-based eco-friendly packaging company Ranpak, noted one small advancement from C3PS can have ripple effects all over the world.

“The packaging industry is always looking for the next big innovation,” he said. “From my point of view, innovations that come out of MSU’s Center, and other universities, have real potential to become the industry standard of tomorrow.”

Ralph Bianculli, CEO of Emerald Ecovations, a Huntington, N.Y.-sustainable packaging company, shared that the paper and packaging industry hasn’t made significant changes over the last few decades, and since education is the foundation to change, C3PS is a huge step in connecting the next generation with industrial applications.

“These collaborative environments help foster innovation cycles and help move the industry forward,” he said, citing ongoing issues like the lack of infrastructure in the United States to properly sort and recycle recyclable products and the industry’s slow acceptance of change. “C3PS needs to overcome these hurdles by sparking innovation, bringing attention to these issues and demanding accountability in the end life processing of products. They need to shake up the industry while collaborating with the next generation of industry decision makers.”

Looking ahead

The goals of C3PS are to increase staff from 24 to 40, grow the number of collaborating universities from 8 to 16, raise the number of NGOs from 2 to 10 and increase the annual research funding to $1.5 million, all by 2030.

“Over the first five years, our goal is to develop environmentally responsible solutions to the industry’s most critical challenges,” Rabnawaz said. “We aim to deliver at least 10 innovative technologies in the areas of paper, plastic and hybrid packaging to our members, all compliant with U.S. and E.U. regulatory standards.”

He expects at least 50% of those innovations will be commercialized by partner companies, “leading to a reduction of over 10% in packaging waste across the U.S. and contributing hundreds of millions of dollars to the U.S. economy.”

Keith Loria is a D.C.-based award-winning journalist who has been writing for major publications for close to 20 years on topics as diverse as healthcare, travel and sustainability.