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On November 6, the Paperboard Packaging Alliance (PPA) announced the winners of its 2025 Student Design Challenge<\/a>.<\/p>\n Prior to the announcement, Packaging Strategies<\/em> had the honor of interviewing the three finalist teams in the challenge, which involved creating sustainable, recyclable packaging for a line of pet care products \u2014 PPA Pets.<\/p>\n The results of the challenge were as follows:<\/p>\n The PAWSH team also took home the People\u2019s Choice Award.<\/p>\n Student design teams from California Polytechnic State University and the Rochester Institute of Technology showcase their awards at the 2025 Paperboard Packaging Council\u2019s Fall Meeting & Leadership Conference in Vancouver, Canada. Image courtesy of Paperboard Packaging Alliance<\/em><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n Dante Verna<\/strong>, a member of the RIT team, provided some insights as to exactly how challenging this year\u2019s challenge was.<\/p>\n \u201cThese DNA kits that we were developing had to be a representation of the brand on the shelf. It had to keep its contents completely secure and had to serve as a way for a consumer to take this product home with them, take samples, and then send that back to the labs for testing,\u201d Verna explained, adding, \u201cThis all had to be contained within one unit, wasting as little material as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n Despite the daunting challenge, Amy Brumlik<\/strong>, another member of the RIT team, said the team really appreciated the hand they were dealt as far as the packaging medium. Brumlik said that, with paperboard, \u201cIf you can dream it, you can achieve it. It\u2019s just deciding how to make that happen.\u201d<\/p>\n Sophia Levin<\/strong> of the PAWSH team offered her perspective: \u201cThis experience definitely taught us about how we can prioritize consumer use while rethinking convenience through a sustainability lens. A lot of the project focused on thinking about \u2014 design-wise \u2014 how to make sure that everything was very readable and able to be intuitively used when going through the DNA test kit steps.\u201d<\/p>\n Dominic Corrente<\/strong>, also of the PAWSH team, noted that eliminating plastics was a key objective but not the only goal.<\/p>\n \u201cFor example, making a tamper-resistant package, we ended up adding the perforated tear strip, which then led us into the direction of having our package open in a book style, which presents the process really clearly to the user,\u201d Corrente said.<\/p>\n Natalie Cheung<\/strong> of Teef Story explained some of the factors that influenced her team\u2019s ultimate packaging solution. Ease-of-use on the part of the consumer was a major consideration.<\/p>\n \u201cWe did a lot of competitor analysis and research. We saw a lot of pain points that consumers were leaving reviews about, so we really wanted to target those pain points that we were seeing,\u201d Cheung said.<\/p>\n Maya Lojo,\u00a0<\/strong>also of the Teef Story team, added: \u201cWith our product, we specifically made sure that it\u2019s also multi-use, multi-purpose, and functional \u2014 where you could add that photo of either your dog or whatever happy memories that you have with your pet \u2014 and it could be on your bookshelf as well.\u201d<\/p>\n To learn more about how this year\u2019s three finalist teams tackled PPA\u2019s 2025 Student Design Challenge, check out the full video interview above.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n