German consumers are becoming more willing to pay a premium for products using sustainable packaging, but new research suggests that the acceptable price increase remains relatively small.

According to Simon-Kucher’s latest Sustainable Product Packaging study, 60% of German consumers say they are generally prepared to pay more for products with more sustainable packaging.

That represents an increase of six percentage points compared with the previous year, indicating that packaging sustainability continues to influence purchasing attitudes despite inflation, energy costs and broader economic uncertainty.

However, the study also reveals an important limitation: 30% of consumers would accept a premium of no more than 5% of the total product price.

For packaging producers and consumer brands, the findings suggest that sustainability can contribute to perceived product value, but it does not provide unlimited room for passing additional packaging costs to consumers.

Younger Consumers Show Much Stronger Willingness to Pay

Age is emerging as one of the clearest dividing lines in consumer attitudes.

Among German consumers under 25, 83% say they are willing to pay more for sustainably packaged products.

Among consumers over 54, that proportion falls to 51%.

Simon-Kucher says the difference between the two age groups has widened by 12 percentage points since 2025.

This creates a more complicated situation for brands.

A packaging strategy aimed at younger consumers may have greater flexibility to incorporate sustainability features that increase costs. The same pricing approach could receive a different response from older customer groups.

Mark-Daniel Rentschler, senior director at Simon-Kucher, said the widening age gap makes both brand communication and pricing more challenging for manufacturers.

Less Packaging Is the Strongest Sustainability Signal

The research also examined what consumers actually interpret as sustainable packaging.

For 49% of respondents, minimizing the amount of packaging material used is one of the clearest indicators.

Easy-to-understand recycling instructions are another important factor.

By comparison, only 26% identify sustainable packaging through official environmental labels.

Another 12% said they cannot reliably determine whether packaging is sustainable.

This finding highlights an important challenge for packaging designers.

Technical improvements such as material optimization, recyclability or changes in packaging structure may deliver environmental benefits, but those improvements are not necessarily obvious to someone looking at the package on a supermarket shelf.

For brands investing in new packaging, communicating what has changed can therefore be nearly as important as the material change itself.

Consumers Favor Some Packaging Regulations More Than Others

The study also examined attitudes toward government measures intended to reduce packaging waste.

Consumer support was highest for bans on certain single-use packaging formats, receiving approval from 37% of respondents.

Rules aimed at reducing unnecessary empty space in packaging followed at 35%.

Expanding deposit-return systems to additional packaging formats received considerably lower support at 25%.

The results suggest that consumer acceptance can depend on how directly a regulatory measure affects everyday purchasing and disposal behavior.

Measures that reduce visible waste may be easier for consumers to understand, while systems requiring additional actions can face greater resistance.

This distinction is increasingly relevant as European packaging regulation moves toward tighter requirements around waste prevention, recyclability, reuse and packaging minimization.

Economic Pressure Has Not Removed Packaging Sustainability Concerns

Perhaps one of the more notable findings is that current economic pressures have not pushed packaging sustainability entirely down consumers’ priority lists.

Despite inflation, high energy costs and geopolitical uncertainty, 71% of respondents said sustainable packaging remains at least as important to them as before.

That does not mean consumers will accept any additional cost.

Instead, the findings reveal a more nuanced market: consumers can value sustainable packaging while remaining highly price-sensitive.

For packaging manufacturers and brands, this creates a clear commercial constraint.

Reducing material use, improving recyclability or introducing alternative materials may strengthen a product’s sustainability proposition, but packaging changes still need to operate within relatively narrow cost boundaries.

The study therefore suggests that the opportunity for sustainable packaging lies less in charging a large “green premium” and more in finding solutions that combine recognizable environmental improvements with controlled additional costs.

Last Updated on 21/08/2026 by Jota Machinery