We’ve said this, we’ve written this: We here at Flexible Packaging are tired of covering the pandemic just as much as you’re tired of hearing about it. The problem is that its effects continue to ripple throughout world and we all continue to be impacted by those waves.

The pandemic was the big story last year, and there’s some speculation that this year’s big story will be cost increases because of it. Doesn’t it feel like whenever we finally seem to be getting close to talking about something other than the pandemic, we get hit with yet another new ripple effect from it?

Many employees are pushing extra hard to stay employed during the pandemic, but employer actions now help determine if those employees will stick around afterward.

Defining what constitutes an advancement in sustainability is harder than it seems at first glance because the scope needs to be defined. What one person might categorize as a sustainable advancement might be rudimentary from another person’s perspective.

We published our 2020 Packaging Outlook at this time last year. And, well, the timing of that couldn’t have been worse. This thing that shall not be named really started affecting the world shortly thereafter.

So, this is going to be more a rant than anything else, but I’m sure everyone will understand because we’re all consumers — and I can’t imagine I’m the only one who’s had these problems.

Last month, Glen Gudino, Flexible Packaging’s publisher, and I had a chat with Dennis Calamusa, president and CEO of Alliedflex. It was a wide-ranging discussion that at one point turned toward the topic of a circular economy.

Regular readers would know that the featured topic last month was about the advances in sustainability within the flexible packaging industry.

I wouldn’t be surprised if you haven’t heard the name Ella Kissi-Debrah before. She was a 9-year-old living in southeast London near one of its busiest roads and suffered from severe asthma, which caused her numerous trips to the hospital between 2010 and 2013. Finally, in February 2013, her asthma brought on a cardiac arrest and she died.