Six experts, six insights into the industry
Daniel Cronin, co-founder of AustrianStartups, was the host of Innovation Day, which centered on talks from six industry experts. Thomas Reiner, founding member and CEO of consulting firm Berndt+Partner, discussed his thoughts on the future of the packaging business and put forward the view that sustainable packaging will require new materials and new structures. Reiner emphasized that the effort of each and every individual will be necessary in order to attain a positive outcome. Jim Armstrong, Member of Management Committee at Plastics Recyclers Europe, stressed that the transition to a circular economy could only be achieved through teamwork. He said that efforts to boost the recyclability of plastic packaging needed to start at the design level. To this end, Armstrong presented the “RecyClass” tool, which can be used to analyze packaging and optimize its recyclability. Pavel Komurka, Packaging Innovation – Sustainability Coordinator at Norwegian conglomerate Orkla, gave a report from the perspective of the branded goods company. Komurka confirmed that plastics would continue to play a key role at Orkla in the future but said the decisive factor would be how they were handled. He stressed that packaging would not only need to be recyclable, but would also ideally be produced from recycled material in the first place. Komurka noted that, while Orkla has already set itself ambitious goals in this area, there is still much work to be done. In his presentation, Jürgen Priesters, Business Development Director at TOMRA Systems, focused on waste sorting methods. He noted that, while garbage collection already functions superbly in Europe, recycling currently falls short primarily due to a lack of precision in how the materials are sorted. Achieving unmixed material streams is impossible at present, according to Priesters, which means that far too much plastic packaging ends up in nonrecyclable waste. He also sees packaging design as the starting point for better recycling outcomes. Josef Simon, Director of Production and Technology at NÖM AG, stressed that packaging still needs to protect the product while also offering all the necessary characteristics that enable it to be recycled. He made the point that, while reducing the consumption of plastics and materials was a top priority at his company, it was important to remember the basic function that packaging needs to fulfill. Manfred Tacker, Head of Sustainable Management of Resources at FH Campus Vienna, also emphasized the important role that modified packaging designs would play in a successful circular economy. He noted that every country has different regulations and that there are no fixed standards to specify which items can or cannot be recycled – which makes it difficult for global companies to assess recyclability. Tacker explained that, together with partners, he has developed guidelines for this purpose that can be used as a reference when developing packaging.
