News Items - International Association of Packaging Research Institutes
| LCA Centre highlights growing importance of regulatory forecasting The LCA Centre in the Netherlands has underlined the growing importance of ‘forward regulatory insight’ in terms of its own work and the impact that public policies (including on reuse) can have on packaging development.  Technical director Alan Campbell tells IAPRI that the team began studying developments with the revised EU Packaging & Packaging Waste Directive (now referred to as a ‘Regulation’ – PPWR) in 2019, with the proposed version of the PPWR published at the end of last year. “Having insight into these developments is vital, as regards the packaging recommendations made in our studies,” he says. “This ‘forward regulatory insight’ part of our offering is becoming ever more important as the policy-maker becomes the major influencer as regards packaging development.” Today’s packaging developers and designers need to have as clear an insight as possible into the trajectory of packaging regulation, Campbell emphasises. The team has seen an “exponential increase” in demand for LCA studies of packaging reuse systems. This is often “in comparison with like-functionality single-use systems”, he explains, adding that this covers both primary and tertiary packaging. “Since the publishing of the proposed PPWR, the single-use sector has woken up to the risk to their offering derived from reuse systems, and there is now even more requirement for such studies.” The LCA Centre is working on a major study in this area, says Campbell, along with the Universities of Twente, Delft, Utrecht and Wageningen. “I hope this will bring even greater insight into the understanding of systems as regards reuse behaviour, reuse pack system design, environmental impact and business models,” he says. Publications from the LCA Centre include Campbell’s own A Forensic Approach to Lifecycle Assessment. Two of his colleagues, Diana Schiffer and Loek Waegemaekers, will be attending the forthcoming IAPRI Conference in Mumbai, India.  Published: 02/23/23 |