The Evolution To Packaging Webinar Summary

The second Two Sides Packaging Webinar delivered insights from across Europe on the benefits of paper packaging over plastic and persuading brands to make the change.

Following the success of the first Two Sides Packaging Webinar in April, the organisation gathered four of Europe’s leading experts in sustainable materials to deliver the latest information and opinion about the packaging industry and how it’s gradually moving from single-use plastic to paper and card.

With the demand for sustainable packaging increasing rapidly all over the world, the packaging industry is clearly on the cusp of transitioning to a more circular future, with the range of possible materials expanding to include some from less traditional sources. One of those sources is seaweed, which is both widely abundant and entirely natural, and something that coatings company Kelpi has based an entire business plan around.

Hugo Adams, Chief Commercial Officer at Kelpi, began his presentation by outlining the cast scale of the plastics problem the world faces. “171 trillion,” he stated. “That’s how many pieces of microplastic are washing around in our oceans and littering our landscapes. They have been found at the top of Everest and at the bottom of the Mariana Trench. There are microplastics in beer and in honey. They are in the air that we breathe and the water that we drink.”

Kelpi’s solution is a seaweed and vegetable oil compound to coat paper and card to create a barrier for fibre packaging. Entirely recyclable and biodegradable (it breaks down in the ocean within 12 months), the innovative barrier solution has won armfuls of awards and contracts with brands such as Waitrose.

“If we don’t change things,” Adams said, “then by 2040 we’ll have double the global plastic pollution and four times the total marine pollution. We have to harness the power of initiative to accelerate the adoption of sustainable practices and new materials.”

The Natural Solution

Next up was Sanna Fager, Chief Commercial Officer at PulPac, one of the world’s leading producer of dry moulded fibre, a material that’s being used successfully for a wide variety of food and drink packaging such as coffee cup lids and bottles.

Speaking from her office in Sweden, Fager extoled the virtues of dry moulded fibre over single-use plastic, with a high recycling rate and 80% lower carbon emissions during manufacture compared to plastic. “We know that European consumers prefer paper and cardboard packaging because of its sustainability,” she said. “But the most important thing is that they are not used to paying for that sustainability. They want to have both the sustainability and the convenience.”

The webinar then skipped over to Germany, where Philipp Eissner, Business Development Manager at Graphic Packaging International, was waiting to offer his thoughts on the role of sustainable packaging in the FMCG and personal care sectors. Starting with some heartening stats – 79% of people are looking for products in sustainable packaging, 68% agree paperboard packaging is part of the environmental solution – he explored the full range of considerations for brands when switching from plastic to paper-based packaging, from shelf-life and convenience to protection and circularity.

“Paperboard offers a very good solution for complex changes if you combine technology and operational expertise,” he said. “If you go down the critical path of change, a close collaboration between you and your packaging partner is key to a good launch. If customers dare to take a risk and be a first mover on a successful solution then others will follow, so why not be the first?”

Speed Up!

Staying on the same side of Europe, Herwig Kirchberger, Managing Director of Austrian research company DELSCI, compared plastic and paper throughout his presentation, pointing out the environmental problems of single-use plastic as well as the technical challenges for paper-based packaging.

As someone who’s on the front line of packaging research, Kirchberger has a deep understanding of the key trends in the sector, which include reduced complexity, convenience, smart and active, customised/modular and transparent biomaterials. He also understands that while the environmental arguments for using paper over plastic are sound, there remains a number of hurdles when it comes to full transition.

“Of course, paper has an very positive sustainability profile, but it still lacks performance when compared to plastic,” he said. “We need to work on all the barriers, not just water vapour, but oxygen, aroma and mineral migration. The packaging industry isn’t the fastest industry when it comes to new product development, so we need to be faster to adapt to more agile product business development strategies.”