Packaging Speaks Green Conference Highlights

A selection of some of the highlights from speakers at the Packaging Speaks Green Conference and the Greenplast events area

Opening the speeches on day one, the Italian Undersecretary for Foreign Affairs Manilo Di Stefano appeared via videolink to stress the importance of environmentally friendly packaging to carbon emissions reductions, and to explain how investments in sustainable solutions are paramount to Italy's and the EU's climate change action plans. Italy is ready to innovate, according to Di Stefano, whose words were echoed by General Director of the Italian Trade Agency Roberto Luongo: "We are in the house of innovation. To be innovative today is to be part of a circular economy. We cannot talk about innovation if we are not in this circular economy."

The Packaging Speaks Green Conference has been organised especially to promote sustainability in the packaging industry, added UCIMA President Matteo Gentili, a message shared by AMAPLAST President Dario Previero, who said: "Greenplast brings a focus on sustainable plastics and circular economy, where exhibitors bring environmentally friendly solutions. We need to provide more information and focus on sustainable technology."

With the opening speeches from distinguished members of the Italian Government and trade bodies over, the first speaker of the conference proper was Richard Cope of Mintel, author of the Mintel Sustainability Barometer. Cope believes that through the consumer's relationship with packaging, brand-owners have an opportunity to engage in a "partnership" with the everyday consumer.

Sustainability, according to Cope, is amongst the top five most important considerations for consumers when buying packaged products. The most popular sustainable behaviours are driven by convenience and simplicity, as well as by frugality and value for money. "Consumers hold companies most responsible for increasing recycling rates," Cope added, "more responsible than consumers themselves and governments."

Because of the growing awareness of consumers' relations ships with plastic packaging, and an increased awareness of the need for more recycling and sustainable solutions, the 'greenwashing' of products must therefore be called out and eradicated: "Consumers have been sold a lie about going 'plastic-free' [and they] don’t have to engage with the 'plastic-free' narrative because retailers don’t want to have these kinds of conversations with consumers."

The additional savvy of consumers when it comes to packaging has warranted the inclusion of a full LIfe Cycle Assessment (LCA), Cope added, because the (particularly the younger generation) want packaging to become part of the solutions that consumers trust, alongside shelf life extension, brand identity and protection.

He used clothing brand Patagonia as a case in point. A customer had got in touch with Patagonia to ask why so much plastic packaging had been used to package a jacket. The clothing brand therefore offered a full and detailed explanation as to WHY plastic packaging was used and showed HOW it protected the product during production, transit and distribution. In other words, no greenwashing excuses were made by Patagonia and companies ought to follow the same model of transparency.

Following Cope was Nerida Kelton, VP Sustainability and Safe Food, World Packaging Organisation, who called for circularity and sustainability to continue to be addressed at a local or regional level to ensure the appropriate infrastructure exists where the products are being sold. These megatrends, according to Kelton, are an opportunity to entirely re-think packaging, with reuse and refill initiatives currently occupying the closest thing to a 'sweet spot' between consumer expectations and sustainable packaging. As a case in point, Kelton highlighted the use of technology and innovation to show the business case of refill packaging options. A start-up company based in Indonesia, named Siklus, has developed an app that consumers can use on their smartphones to order refill products direct to their doors. This not only saves on packaging materials production and use, but on carbon emissions used to drive to the store.

To close, Kelton mentioned the pioneering positivity of the work of Europe-based initiatives such as the HolyGrail 2.0 programme, the Perfect Sorting Consortium, Recyclass and CEFLEX. 

Day 2

Starlinger viscotec’s Christoph Danereder took to the stage to discuss circular packaging solutions from the machinery manufacturer’s perspective. Recent developments brought about over the past two years include the deCON iV+ decontamination unit, a new high-capactiy heating and cooling roll stack, and perhaps viscotec flagship development, the rPET 100 material. The novelty of a machinery manufacturer producing a packaging material was not lost on the audience.

Although an established tray to tray recycling solution, the deCON iV+ produces a tray flake lower in viscosity to bottle PET flake. This machine produced the first rPET tray available for use, according to Danereder, and the market is now demanding bigger lines and higher output machinery.

Henkel’s Giuseppe Scicchitano discussed the Henkel way to circular economy. With environmental sustainability a top priority at the company, Scicchitano reminded his audience that Henkel has been replacing virgin plastics with recycled alternatives since the early 90s. Today Henkel applies a circular economy model to all packaging materials and the speaker suggested a synergy between paper and plastic has been established. A hydrosoluble film, for example, is vulnerable to humidity and therefore requires the protection of plastic.

Certain home products manufactured by thermoforming at Henkel now have a reduced weight and thickness, containing 50 per cent rPP. This required a re-think in packaging design with advantages that now include recycled plastic use, fewer materials, and optimised recyclability by being able to separate the cardboard elements from the plastic. This also introduces a reuse element to the product as Scicchitano admitted that he now has numerous makeshift plant pots around his home.

Fabrizio Di Gregorio, Plastics Recyclers Europe and Recyclass, presented the two major themes behind Recyclass – recyclability and recycled content. Brands are not currently designed for recycling, Di Gregorio began, but for functionality. “Quality means being good enough to make virgin plastics obsolete,” he added, [and]” the Recyclass vision is to ensure the circularity of all plastic packaging products.”

Circularity, according to Di Gregorio, is abused by industry and greenwashing is still rife in the market, which brought him to invite the audience to question whether products are really circular.

“What is important for the plastics packaging industry is harmonisation based on science.

We cannot continue to greenwash and mislead the consumer,” he summarised.

Veteran speaker, activist and academic Dr Rudolf Koopmans, Plastic Innovation Competence Center, took to the stage to question whether or not the consumer is the weak link in the circular economy. “We no longer know what to do with a packaging product once we have consumed the contents.”

Circularity, he said, is a good start but it can only buy time until new solutions to the feedstock are found. As industry experts, we need to think about how we organise ourselves and rethink how we use energy and materials to create a society that is healthy to live in. Co-operation and communication are key. The latter on a level that enables people to understand the science behind circularity.

To conclude, Koopmans expressed his frustration by affirming that sustainability not a new topic and that he had been to trade fairs and conferences discussing it for 40 years. Credit is due to Koopmans and his longstanding passion for sustainability because he here was, still speaking, still engaging and still thinking about ecodesign, reverse logistics (recovering materials for feedstock), disruptive technology and alternative business models.

To sum up his address, the simple answers are useless and the correct answers are difficult but will eventually lead the industry to the right destination.

Alessia Gaetani, Project Manager at CEN and CENELEC, discussed standardisation in support of circularity. CEN aims to consolidate 34 national standards into a single standard for the European Single Market.

She touched upon the ubiquity of plastics to illustrate the responsibility of technical committees involved in bodies such as CEN and CENELEC. It is inevitable, Gaetani said, that standardisation will focus on packaging plastics and on how European standards fit into a circular economy. Policy context influences the way standards are made although most are market-driven. The connection between the Circular Plastics Alliance (CPA) and CEN is the development of standards, and through the CPA the EU asking for 45 new standards aimed at recycling. These are expected to be delivered within 36 months, which illustrates the

important challenges faced by standardisers. Gaetani also sees this as an opportunityl. The standards need to be ambitious but accessible to both industry and society as they will be the stakeholders that drive the change towards circularity. She closed her address by inviting the audience to communicate and collaborate.

Former Plastics Recycling Ambassador and the brains behind the Holy Grail 2.0 digital watermark initiative Gian de Belder, P&G, closed the days speeches by reminding his audience that no single European country is collecting enough plastics for recycling, and that Holy Grail technology should be able to help improve this.

The brand-owner aims to reduce petroleum-based plastics in its products by 50 per cent, and digital watermarks will provide the information on these products to sorting technology without affecting the brand image.

Holy Grail 2.0 tests will be going live in Denmark this year, with industrial testing in Copenhagen already showing good results with 99 per cent detection rates and 95 per cent ejection rates, resulting in a purity of 96 per cent.