Circular Economy as a Crucial Component

At a time when sustainability is a key challenge for companies, Dr. Johannes Bergmair, Secretary General of the World Packaging Organization, chaired the discussion and addressed questions such as: Which materials and technologies will revolutionize the industry? How can we minimize the consumption of resources and, at the same time, meet consumer expectations? How do we deal with the “tsunami” of new legal regulations?

Bergmair took part in the high-profile panel discussion alongside Horst Bittermann (Director General of Pro Carton), Andreas Helbig (Spokesman of the Board of the German Folding Carton Industry Association), Dr. Isabell Schmidt (Managing Director of Circular Economy at IK Industrievereinigung Kunststoffverpackungen), Julian Thielen (Head of “Made for Recycling” at Interzero Recycling Alliance GmbH) and Ton Knipscheer (Executive Director of the European Co-Packers Association).

During the discussion, it quickly became clear that the circular economy will play an even more central role in the industry in the future. Specifically, the experts discussed how all packaging could be brought into the material recycling cycle. The background to this is the EU regulation on packaging and packaging waste (PPWR), which stipulates binding targets for packaging volumes and their composition as of 2030. Accordingly, Horst Bittermann, Director General of Pro Carton, described it as the order of the day to increase the recyclability and actual recycling of packaging: “First and foremost, this requires improvements in packaging design, as well as in the collection rate and sorting processes.”

Switch to Mono-Material

Particular attention must be paid to materials research in this context. In this regard, the experts referred to Section 21 of the German Packaging Act, which the Federal Ministry for the Environment is currently revising. The aim was to structure the charges for packaging in such a way that they have an effective ecological steering effect. “The path towards renewable, recyclable packaging and thus away from throwing it away and wasting resources requires a change from multi-materials to mono-materials,” said Horst Bittermann.

Innovation was also the key to the question of how resource consumption could be sustainably reduced. “Our industrial growth must be based on the increased use of recyclates. At the same time, continuous product improvement should be seen as an entrepreneurial duty,” said Andreas Helbig, Spokesman of the Board of the Folding Carton Industry Association. According to him, the growth in paper, cardboard and carton packaging over the past 30 years could be attributed solely to the increased use of recyclates.

The panel was critical of the plethora of new legal regulations, both at national and EU levels. The experts acknowledged that the laws and regulations were generally based on good ideas. However, they criticized the fact that their implementation was in some cases impractical and extremely difficult for the industry. The main reason for this was that the industry was not sufficiently involved in the drafting of the laws. The bottom line was that the “bureaucracy monsters”, as they were referred to in the panel, would tie up a disproportionate amount of resources in companies.

Dr. Isabell Schmidt, Managing Director of Circular Economy at IK Industrievereinigung Kunststoffverpackungen, drew attention to the considerable potential of plastic packaging in reducing waste and the associated CO2 emissions. In particular, the establishment of reusable plastic packaging in new market segments such as the cosmetics industry offered considerable savings potential. The industry was also increasingly moving away from fossil raw materials. “Defossilization is the keyword here, i.e. producing innovative plastics without the use of fossil resources. There have recently been incredibly promising developments, especially in the areas of recycling and biomass.”