News Items - International Association of Packaging Research Institutes
| Striking the right note The specialist knowledge of keynote speakers at the May IAPRI Conference in Mumbai, India, as ever provided valuable context and commentary for the wealth of research-based papers that followed. A focus on just two of these keynotes provides insights into, on the one hand, India’s packaging print sector and, on the other, future evolution of the EU’s packaging regulations.  As editor of Haymarket SAC’s Print Week and What Packaging? publications in India, Ramu Ramanathan had at his fingertips recent data on this sector, how it is performing and how it views prospects for the future. His ‘coup d’oeil’ or snapshot of the packaging and print industry was backed up by online research compiled by his colleague Charmiane Alexander.Beyond the pandemic Ramanathan emphasised the impacts not only of the coronavirus pandemic, but the secondary effects of supply chain dislocation, the China lockdown and the price rises that have hit all sectors of the economy. To this, of course, he added the international disruption that has resulted from Russia’s war in Ukraine. Then again, the very nature of a ‘snapshot’ means that the picture it shows is susceptible to change. So, for instance, his data had 42% of respondents saying their plants were operating at 50-75% capacity during 2022. “But now, capacity is probably 80-90%,” Ramanathan tells IAPRI. “In some cases, such as food, pharma, alcoholic beverages and other FMCG segments, capacity is at 110-120%, and so packaging jobs are being outsourced, plus there are new investments.” This healthier outlook reported by individual companies seems to be reflected at industry level. For his Conference presentation, Ramanathan quoted figures from the Confederation of Indian Industries projecting growth in the country’s packaging industry from US$50.5 billion in 2019 to US$204.81bn by 2025 – which would imply a CAGR of 26.7% over the five years from 2020. Data from the Packaging Industry Association of India is not far off this figure, said Ramanathan, estimating the CAGR to be between 22% and 25% across the sector. By all accounts, current and projected growth rates in Indian packaging post-Covid are proving higher than pre-pandemic. The keynote quoted a further study from Assocham and EY which put the CAGR for the sector at ‘just’ 18% in the five years up to 2020. The world took notice when, earlier this year, India outstripped China in population terms for the first time. But there are other metrics which put the country ahead, not just of China but of many western economies, too. For instance, Ramanathan noted that, according to ACI Worldwide, when it comes to e-commerce, India notched up “a staggering 48.6bn” real-time transactions in 2021, compared with 18bn in China and just 7.5bn as the combined total of the five leading world economies. Regulating Europe  While growth is the dominant note in India’s packaging and consumer markets, developments in Europe are more focused on sustainability and the regulation that underpins it. This was the theme of the keynote presentation from The LCA Centre’s Diana Schiffer – and more specifically, the imminent arrival of the new Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR), as a revision of the still-current Directive.In fact, one of her first tasks was to explain why this legislation is classed as a ‘regulation’ rather than a ‘directive’. “With a directive, each EU27 Member State (MS) needs to adopt national legislation to transpose the directive for national implementation on its territory,” she said. “This gives implementation ‘flexibility’ to governments and opens the door to heterogenous implementation of the rules from country to country.” A ’regulation’, on the other hand, is directly applicable as law in each MS, gives governments very little flexibility how it is applied and ensures homogeneity of implementation, said Schiffer. Since the publication of the proposed PPWR late last year, there has been a period of public consultation, with the first reading of the regulation in the European Parliament (EP) and examination by the Council of the EU likely to conclude towards the end of September this year, and a vote in the EP scheduled for the start of October. The formal negotiation (or ‘trilogue’) between the Parliament and MS national governments will then begin, she said. The PPWR could come into force as early as the spring of 2024, and be applicable from the start of 2025. “Compliance with sustainability requirements is to be ensured by the manufacturer, or the ‘brand-owner’, and non-compliant packaging may not be placed on the market,” Schiffer told her audience. Regulation covers areas from packaging minimisation and reuse to recyclability and recycled plastics content. Compostability is another theme, and there are specific measures regarding substances of concern, labelling and the assessment of conformity. The packaging minimisation provisions currently stipulate that weight, volume and empty space inside a pack should be reduced to the minimum necessary to ensure packaging functionality. “The proportion of empty space in grouped packaging such as multipacks or transport packaging should not exceed 40%, unnecessary layers and false bottoms will be outlawed and there will be outright bans on certain single-use formats,” she reported. Proposed bans on single-use packaging include: film multipacks for cans, tubs and other primary packaging; packaging for less than 1.5kg of fresh produce; packaging for food and drink in the hospitality sector; and in the same sector, individual portion packs of condiments, milk or sauces, except when provided with takeaway prepared food. From reduction to reuse The targets for reuse are likely to prove some of the toughest to meet for many supply chains. Those category-specific targets for sales packaging include:
Requirements for reusables in transport packaging are stiffer still, said Schiffer, with intra-company transport and B2B delivery within the same MS needing to use 100% reusable packaging by 2030. Even stabilization and protection systems for pallet loads will have to be 30% reusable by 2040. By then, the same requirement will apply to half of delivery systems for non-food e-commerce items. When it comes to determining whether packaging is ‘recyclable’ or ‘non-recyclable’, criteria will include meeting Design-for-Recycling (DfR) guidelines from 2030 and in addition, five years later, being demonstrably recycled at scale. There are specific 2030 and 2040 targets for recycled plastics content regarding different polymers, pack types and end uses. Industrial compostability (as opposed to home compostability) will be required for: tea and coffee bags; tea and coffee single-serve units; labels for produce; and very lightweight plastics carrier bags. “Any other packaging, including packaging made from biodegradable plastics, must allow material recycling without affecting the recyclability of other waste streams,” Schiffer explained. Not all provisions in the proposed PPWR are directly applicable in every MS. As she demonstrated, a number of areas from packaging waste prevention to recycling systems, incentives for reuse and refill and deposit return systems are being left to the discretion of national governments. “Each MS is obliged to achieve the given targets but can choose which measures are best suitable in their national context,” she said. Challenges with many of these measures have been noted, said Schiffer, by MS representatives, by EP committees and by industry. Those concerns start with the appropriateness of a regulation, rather than a directive, given the lack of flexibility and the fact that national measures may be undermined. “There has been a lack of thorough impact assessment, whether economic or social, in areas such as reuse targets, with little consideration here of national specificities, the variety of contexts of consumption or of logistical complexities,” she said. Refilling, too, may give rise to concerns about public health and hygiene. Different sets of challenges apply to recycling, recyclability and recycled content targets. “Being able to meet recycled content percentages, for example, depends on the accessibility of secondary raw materials; their availability, cost and quality, as well as on the use of recycled polymers for food contact,” Schiffer explained. “At the same time, significant investment in sorting and recycling infrastructure will be needed in order to meet the 2030 recyclability goal.” Published: 06/29/23 |