WRAPPED 2025
Tocco Materials
Wrapped 2025
The signal, not the noise — breakthroughs, failures, and hard-stops that shaped materials in 2025.
A Letter to Our Readers
From the Editorial Team
Leon Ge
Founder, tocco.earth
Materials intelligence curator dedicated to delivering signal over noise
Dear Reader,
If this year moved quickly - faster than you would have liked - you are not alone.
2025 did not unfold gently. It pressed forward with deadlines, decisions, regulatory hard-stops, and a steady acceleration of complexity. Materials were no longer a quiet backdrop to design or procurement. They became decisive. Political. Urgent.
We know many of you have been busy building, shipping, firefighting, and keeping organisations moving. Reading everything was impossible. Tracking everything, even more so.
So we did something simple, and serious.
We slowed down on your behalf.
Wrapped 2025 is our attempt to give you back perspective - not by adding more noise, but by curating signal. What mattered. What stalled. What quietly reshaped the terrain beneath familiar choices. The breakthroughs worth remembering, and the hard-stops no one could afford to miss.
This bundle is not a highlight reel. It is a map.
A way to catch up without rushing.
A way to reconnect the dots across regulation, packaging, PFAS elimination, DPP readiness, industrial geography, and emerging material pathways.
A way to see the year whole - so the next one can be faced with clarity rather than anxiety.
Clarity matters more than optimism.
Clarity creates calm.
Clarity restores agency.
When the landscape is legible, decisions become lighter. Trade-offs become explicit. Hope becomes grounded - not wishful, but informed.
Every page here was prepared with care: by editors, scientists, designers, and contributors who believe materials intelligence should help people act, not just react. If this year asked a great deal of you, consider this our way of meeting you halfway.
Take your time.
Skim, or dive deep.
Save what matters. Share what helps your team.
And know that behind every chart, report, and toccographic, there is a small group of people thinking seriously about the same questions you are - and choosing, again and again, the signal over the noise.
We are glad you are here.
Warmly,
The Tocco Editorial Team
Wrapped Scoreboard
Top Toccographics of 2025
The Definitive Year in Review
The Tocco 2025 Materials Review
Biggest Breakthroughs, Failures & Lessons in Material Landscape
A cross-sector review of advanced materials in 2025, highlighting major breakthroughs, notable failures, and key lessons learned. Written for designers, procurement managers, investors, and industry experts—instantly intelligible to non-experts while insightful to veterans.
5 Critical Insights
- Global landscape of advanced materials — new milestones & trade dynamics1
- Energy & climate solutions — batteries, storage, renewable breakthroughs2
- Electronics & communication — semiconductors, metamaterials, quantum leap3
- Biotech & healthcare — biomaterials, medical devices, biofabrication advances4
- Construction & mobility — notable innovations reshaping infrastructure5
Most Comprehensive Review
Trusted by 3,200+ material professionals
Editor's Picks — Reports
Tocco Report: The Global Packaging Compliance Handbook for 2026
Top Mattermind Articles
10 Concepts That Defined 2025
Definition: Regulatory deadlines eliminating per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances from manufacturing.
Why it matters: Over 12,000 chemicals face bans across EU, US, and Asia by 2030, forcing material reformulation at scale.
Definition: EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation banned materials list.
Why it matters: Defines which packaging formats are illegal post-2026, requiring immediate supply chain redesign.
Definition: Digital Product Passport infrastructure requirements for material traceability.
Why it matters: Companies without DPP-compatible systems face market access restrictions in EU from 2027.
Definition: Standardized scoring systems measuring material recovery feasibility.
Why it matters: Drives design decisions and EPR cost allocation across entire packaging value chain.
Definition: Mandatory minimum percentages of post-consumer recycled material in products.
Why it matters: Creates structural demand shift, raising virgin material costs and recycled material prices.
Definition: Extended Producer Responsibility schemes making brands liable for end-of-life costs.
Why it matters: Fundamentally changes packaging economics, favoring lightweighting and mono-materials.
Definition: Legal requirements for substantiated environmental claims with third-party verification.
Why it matters: Eliminates vague "eco-friendly" marketing, demanding transparent LCA data and certifications.
Definition: Industrial processes converting agricultural and food waste into functional materials.
Why it matters: Creates new value chains, reduces virgin feedstock dependence, enables circular models.
Definition: Concentrated manufacturing zones optimized for specific supply chain ecosystems.
Why it matters: Vietnam and China corridors drive global material sourcing, with location determining cost and lead times.
Definition: AI-powered forecasting for material availability, pricing, and regulatory risk.
Why it matters: Enables proactive sourcing decisions, reducing supply disruption and compliance penalties.
Top 25 Contributors 2025
The experts, researchers, and innovators who shaped materials intelligence in 2025.
Auke Bleij
Joe Luttwak
Dima Al Srouri
Joonas Sirviö
Clara De Souza Bartholomeu
Johan Tijssen
Catinca Tilea
Amy Frascella
Enrique Torres Takahashi
Marilia Biill
Carolin Schütt
Kana Watanabe
Michal Zimowski
WE+ STUDIO
Mattie Mead
Renana Krebs
Yash Shah
Petra Vicianová
ecoLogicStudio
Daniela Pino
Claire Ellis
Jesse Adler
Anna-Liisa Palatu
Bosan Zhang
Anne Boermanss
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