Innovation Days: Greiner Packaging director previews company’s first virtual event

01 Jun 2021 --- Greiner Packaging is hosting its first virtual trade show experience next week (June 9 and 10), exploring topics ranging from the plastics circular economy and biocircular materials to connected packaging and digital watermarks.

The plastic packaging producer’s Innovation Days will feature a host of keynote speeches, live talks and material sessions, focusing on various aspects of establishing a circular economy for packaging.

Manfred Stanek, Greiner Packaging CEO, will kick off the event on June 9 at 10 AM CEST with a live talk on the future of packaging and the crucial role innovation plays in meeting the requirements for environmentally sustainable solutions.

PackagingInsights discusses the virtual event’s key themes with Jörg Sabo, global marketing and innovation director, including carbon reduction, anti-plastic sentiment and COVID-19 industry impacts.

Why have you decided to host this virtual event?
Sabo: The Innovation Days are our response to the COVID-19 situation. Since March last year, it’s been impossible to attend trade shows, visit conferences and host customer events or visits. At the same time, there is a lot of movement in the industry, such as activities on the legislative level and recycling materials. These are the reasons why we tried out this new event virtually. Jörg Sabo, global marketing and innovation director.

What topics will you be addressing?
Sabo: We wanted to cover all topics relevant to the industry and our customers. We have internal speakers, but it was also important to invite external speakers. Representatives of the European Commission will provide an update on legal developments. We will give an exciting update on where we stand on recycling and announce some great news surrounding these topics.

We have invited David Katz, CEO of Plastic Bank, and Jacob Duer, CEO of the Alliance to End Plastic Waste, and companies like RecyClass and Suez, who will talk about recyclability and other innovative topics like digital watermarks and connective packaging.

What do you see as the main challenges in achieving a circular economy for plastics?
Sabo: The challenge, first of all, is to establish waste streams where we have cup to cup recycling. Another challenge is the use of recyclable materials, while food waste certifications are key. At the moment, we only see good availability in the rPET sector. rPP chemical recycling is on its way but still in too small quantities. Mechanically recycled rPP has good results, but there is no current EFSA approval. 

Then we have higher prices for packaging materials compared to virgin materials, so these are the challenges not stopping progress but making it slower than we want. At the end of the day, the CO2 footprint shouldn’t get worse just because you are only focused on recyclability.

Do you see advanced recycling and carbon reductions as competing ambitions, or can they be achieved simultaneously?
Sabo: It’s essential to have an eye on both, but they are not competing ambitions. From a carbon footprint perspective, chemical recycling is still better than virgin materials – this is very important to mention. Of course, mechanical recycling is the better option in terms of footprints, however, not in terms of recyclate quality. When the quality of the waste is not good enough for mechanical recycling, and the solution would be incineration, then advanced recycling is a good option.Greiner Packaging is focused on designing solutions compatible with closed-loop recycling.

In what ways are your packaging solutions designed to enable circularity?
Sabo: We have established a circular economy strategy in our company. This strategy is based on three pillars: reduce, reuse and recycle. When we talk about “reduce,” it’s all about weight, material selection, but also carbon footprint. It’s important for us to increase recyclability for all our products and use as much recycled content as possible.

When I talk about increasing recyclability, the design for recycling is essential. This means we are designing and producing products fully compatible with a closed-loop. Key here are mono-material solutions and used materials where recycling streams exist in respective countries. If there are no mono-material solutions, it’s important the cardboard is separated before it goes into the sorting process.

Anti-plastic sentiment has been on the rise in recent years. Do you think it is justified?
Sabo: Partially, I think it is justified. Nobody wants to see plastic in the environment, and those pictures stir emotions. Combined with a lack of knowledge, [perceptions of plastic] can easily go in the wrong direction. It’s important that the awareness [of plastic pollution] has changed and the industry is looking for solutions. There is an extension of recycling infrastructure and we are now talking about design for recycling. These are all things that were not happening five years ago. I see the issue is on the right path but these are not topics that can be solved in one or two years, so we are talking about a mid- to long-term perspective.The company produces rigid plastic packaging in 30 locations across 19 countries.

The materials are not bad, only how people deal with them. Materials should not be thrown into nature – we need recycling and collection infrastructure worldwide, not just in Europe. So we also have to work on educating people that waste can have value and be reused.

What are the short-term impacts of COVID-19 on the food packaging industry?
Sabo: The pandemic helped the packaging industry because the value of packaging increased a lot. People are cautious about hygiene during a pandemic, so the plastic discussion stopped because there was a bigger problem. But we also know that once COVID-19 is over, these discussions will come back. The good thing is the industry did not stop working hard on solutions.

We also saw that people were purchasing less often, but when they did, they were buying more, so shelf life plays an important role. On-the-go packaging decreased, and the volume for larger packaging increased a lot. And because of buying less often and buying in bigger portions, reclosability plays a very important role. We also witnessed a greater return to higher-quality foods and higher-quality packaging, like our K3 solution.

By Joshua Poole