Meet Joe Foster: Sustainable Business & Packaging Consultant
Four decades in packaging gives you a pretty good idea of what works and what doesn't.
Joe Foster has spent more than 40 years working in flexible packaging, from manufacturing and technical development to global packaging supply, sustainability and building businesses.
He started on the factory floor in Ireland before taking the leap in 1998 and founding his own packaging business from a small back room in Cape Town.
From there, Joe built an international footprint across Europe, Africa and Asia-Pacific, eventually establishing himself in Australia and building the business that became Foster Packaging.
But four decades in the industry have taught Joe something more important than simply knowing packaging: they've taught him which questions to ask when choosing a packaging supplier.
From the factory floor to building global, sustainable packaging solutions
Joe Foster’s career has taken him from making packaging to building businesses, developing global manufacturing relationships and delivering sustainable packaging solutions grounded in technical and commercial reality.
In 2021, he led the merger of his packaging business with recycling company Close the Loop, forming the ASX-listed Close the Loop Group and bringing packaging supply and resource recovery together within the same group.
Joe served as CEO through that transition before eventually stepping away and returning his focus to the part of the industry he knows best: helping businesses make better packaging decisions.
Today, that work continues through True Pack.
Along the way, Joe has been recognised as a Fellow of the Australasian Institute of Packaging, named Packaging Professional of the Year in 2019 and received a World Packaging Organisation Lifetime Achievement Award.
His team's work on the Brookfarm curbside-recyclable pouch also received a Dow Packaging Innovation Diamond Award.
Joe Foster’s Approach
Packaging sustainability without the spin.
Joe is a strong advocate for a more circular packaging economy. But he's equally willing to challenge sustainability claims that get ahead of technical or commercial reality.
Australia still faces significant challenges around the collection, sorting and recycling of soft plastics, as well as creating viable end markets for recovered materials.
At the same time, flexible packaging itself is technically complex. Structures can contain combinations of polyethylene, polypropylene, polyester, nylon, foil, paper, inks, adhesives and coatings. Moving towards mono-material solutions is important, but changing one element can affect barrier performance, shelf life, machinability, food safety or recyclability elsewhere.
There are rarely simple answers.
That's why Joe believes progress needs to be based on evidence, technical understanding and the realities of the entire packaging and recycling system — not simply the strongest sustainability claim.
Helping shape the future of packaging through industry leadership and education.
As a Fellow and Board Member of the Australasian Institute of Packaging (AIP), Joe plays an active role in supporting the next generation of packaging professionals and helping the industry navigate increasingly complex technical and sustainability challenges.
His involvement extends beyond the boardroom. As a member of the AIP Education Committee, industry educator and PIDA Awards judge, Joe contributes to professional development, recognises packaging innovation and encourages practical, evidence-based thinking.
From lecturing in Thailand and presenting to international audiences in Taiwan to moderating industry discussions on the Future of Soft Plastics, Joe remains closely involved in the conversations shaping packaging's future.
For Joe, education and industry collaboration are about more than sharing four decades of experience. They're about challenging assumptions, improving standards and helping businesses make better-informed packaging decisions.
40 years of knowing what a good packaging supplier looks like.
Four decades in packaging gives Joe something that can't be downloaded from a technical datasheet: perspective.
He knows what businesses should expect from a packaging supplier, and which questions they should be asking, such as:
What does the product actually require?
What barrier performance is needed?
How will the material behave on the production line?
What happens during transport and storage?
What happens at end of life?
Does the sustainability claim being made actually stack up?
Joe has seen flexible packaging solve extraordinarily difficult technical challenges over the past 40 years. His view is that the next generation of packaging needs the same level of rigour.
Because making packaging more sustainable shouldn't mean making it worse at being packaging.
Start with the product, not the packaging claim.
The conversation around packaging has changed enormously over Joe's career.
Today, sustainability is rightly a major priority. But Joe believes the industry risks getting the process backwards when sustainability becomes the starting point rather than part of a complete technical packaging solution.
Packaging has a job to do.
It needs to protect the product, maintain shelf life and quality, perform through manufacturing, survive storage and distribution, meet food-safety requirements and deliver the experience the customer expects.
Only when those requirements are understood can you determine which packaging structure is genuinely fit for purpose — and then work out how to make it as sustainable as technically and commercially possible.
That's the approach Joe brings to every packaging challenge.
A packaging supplier built on global connections and independent thinking.
Today, Joe Foster is Managing Director of True Pack, working with businesses that want greater transparency, stronger supply relationships and better packaging outcomes.
Through an extensive international network built over four decades, Joe connects businesses with manufacturing expertise, technical capability and supply partners suited to the challenge in front of them.
But the value isn't simply knowing where to source packaging.
It's knowing what to ask, what to challenge and when a solution doesn't make sense.
Joe's approach is straightforward: understand the product, develop packaging that performs, source it responsibly and then push sustainability as far as the technical and commercial realities allow.
No shortcuts. No sustainability theatre. No treating highly specialised packaging as just another commodity.
Just better-informed packaging decisions.
Why True Pack?
True Pack was created around a simple belief: businesses deserve more from their packaging supplier than a product and a price.
They deserve transparency around where their packaging comes from and why a particular structure has been recommended.
They deserve consistent quality and access to genuine technical expertise.
And when it comes to sustainability, they deserve evidence rather than marketing claims.
True Pack combines Joe Foster's four decades of experience with a global network of manufacturing and industry relationships to challenge the conventional packaging supply model.
Our aim is to help you find sustainable packaging solutions that genuinely fit your product, your business and your supply chain — balancing performance, packaging sustainability and commercial reality.