July in review: The UK’s new Labour government, IFT First 2024, Smurfit WestRock’s debut

29 Jul 2024 --- July began with the UK’s Labour party achieving a landslide victory in the country’s general election, ending the Conservative party’s 14 year reign and opening the doors to the possibility of a new legislative landscape for the packaging industry. Meanwhile, Smurfit WestRock officially debuted on the London and New York stock exchanges, forming one of the world’s biggest paper packaging groups. 

Also, we reported live from IFT First 2024 in Chicago, US, where we spoke to Tetra Pak and other packaging players about their latest innovations, opinions and forecasts on the industry’s future. 

Among this month’s key developments, we look at some of the hottest topics, market dynamics and trends while speaking to some of the most prominent players in the industry. 

July

Labour’s election triumph: How can the new UK government build a circular packaging economy?
Following the UK’s general election, packaging industry stakeholders began calling for investments and legislative support for material circularity from the country’s new Labour government, led by Prime Minister Keir Starmer. We spoke to Sian Sutherland, co-founder of advocacy group A Plastic Planet, about the “distinct lack” of ambition made by the former Conservative government in comparison with the EU. We also sat down with Philip Law, director general of the British Plastics Federation, who told us that legislation against all forms of single-use packaging could help the industry move forward in a more profitable and sustainable direction. 

Smurfit WestRock debuts on New York and London stock exchanges 
Tetra Pak products on display at IFT First 2024 in Chicago, US.Smurfit WestRock launched its primary listing on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker “SW,” following the completion of the merger between Smurfit Kappa and WestRock last week. The new company also has a standard listing on the London Stock Exchange under the ticker “SWR.” Smurfit WestRock will operate in 40 countries, have access to 100,000 packaging experts and is expected to be worth roughly US$34 billion. “Combining Smurfit Kappa and WestRock creates a world-leading sustainable packaging player, bringing together a tremendous depth of experience and expertise from both companies,” said Tony Smurfit, Smurfit WestRocks CEO. “We believe that this combination has created the ‘go-to’ leader and partner of choice in sustainable packaging.”

UK foodservice sector seeks standardized packaging circularity from new Labour government
The Foodservice Packaging Association (FPA) called on the Labour government to install standardized packaging circularity across the UK. Given that the Labour Party now holds the majority of seats in Wales and England, the FPA said it hopes policy misalignment across those two nations will be prevented. However, the FPA’s executive director, Martin Kersh, told Packaging Insights he is worried that Scotland’s packaging legislation may soon be out of sync with the rest of the UK, since the election of the next Scottish Government is still two years away and the ministerial powers are already granted under Scotland’s Circular Economy Bill.

Stora Enso secures €435M loan to support growth in Finnish fiber-based boards
Stora Enso signed a €435 million (US$473.6 million) bilateral loan with the European Investment Bank to bolster its growth in renewable, fiber-based consumer packaging boards. The new long-term bilateral loan partially finances Stora Enso’s €1 billion (US$1.08 billion) investment in its Oulu mill in Finland. The company expects to begin operations at the mill with a novel, converted consumer board production line in the first half of 2025.

Australian-German collaboration provides Asia-Pacific region with hemp-based packaging
Australian ag-tech company Wandarra and German packager Papacks joined forces to transform the packaging industry across Australia and the Asia-Pacific region by reducing plastic waste. The partnership will leverage Wandarra’s access to hemp supplies with Papacks’ modern production technologies. We spoke to Tahsin Dag, founder and CEO at Papack, about how Wandarra is providing its locally sourced hemp, a sustainable and versatile raw material, while Papacks is utilizing advanced technology for creating eco-friendly packaging. 

2M Group founds packaging business unit to promote biomaterial production
Visy’s production plant in New South Wales, Australia.International chemical business 2M Group of Companies is launching a new packaging-focused business unit, Sustainable Packaging Technologies, to promote its growing portfolio of biomaterial technologies. Initially, the focus of the new unit will be on promoting plastic-free barrier coatings as substitutes for non-biodegradable coatings in single-use paperboard packaging. We spoke to James Nelson, head of the new business unit, who said that the launch “is primarily intended to address the growing demand for alternatives to traditional plastic packaging.”

IFT First 2024: Tetra Pak highlights tethered closures, single-serve and pet food pack innovations
Tetra Pak highlighted the latest carton packaging innovations at the world’s biggest food technology trade show IFT First 2024 in Chicago, US. On the show floor, Packaging Insights spoke with Blaine Johnson, business development manager at Tetra Pak in Denton, US, about balancing sustainability and product protection. We also discussed growing consumer demands for single-serve packages, tethered closures and pet food packaging innovations. Johnson said the company sees sustainability challenges as it is currently including a plastic liner in its food packages for product protection. The carton packaging giant is innovating to get plant-based plastic replacements on the inside of the packaging, enabling recyclability in existing infrastructure. “You should see some of it out on the marketplace in the near future,” said Johnson.

Scaling US compostable packaging systems: Fighting contamination through labeling and investment
Compostable packaging streams in the US are widely contaminated by look-alike single-use plastics, hindering the expansion of infrastructure and mitigation of the industry’s environmental footprint, according to a new report by Closed Loop Partners (CLP). The findings also show that confusion over the effectiveness of compostable packaging designs leads many industrial composters to categorically reject waste. However, major barriers are preventing the adoption of composting infrastructure, including critical failures in packaging development. We spoke to Paula Luu, senior project director at the Center for the Circular Economy, CLP, about the need for the industry to understand the magnitude of packaging contamination in composting streams. Roughly 80% of all contamination in industrial composts is caused by conventional plastics by volume, and composters spend nearly a quarter of their operational costs on managing contamination.

Visy’s AUS$150M oxygen-fueled glass furnace slashes Australian packaging emissions 
Visy launched what it says is the most energy-efficient glass furnace in Australia at its recycling and remanufacturing facility in Sydney. The furnace, financed with a AUS$150 million (US$100 million) investment, is the country’s first oxygen-only fueled furnace, using less than half the energy of the one it replaced. The facility, located in the Sydney suburb Penrith, was officially opened by New South Wales Premier Chris Minns and our Chairman Anthony Pratt. According to Pratt, the rise in efficiency provides enough additional energy to heat over 32,000 Sydney homes every year. The Penrith site is the only glass bottle and jar manufacturing factory in NSW.

Metal packaging demand surges among geopolitical instability and energy supply shortages
The packaging industry competes with many other sectors for metal supplies, leaving the industry with potential supply bottlenecks brought on by mounting geopolitical instability and energy supply shortages, according to Ásdís Virk Sigtryggsdóttir, chief commercial officer at Iceland-based metal company DTE. We sat down with Sigtryggsdóttirto discuss how metal industry players are using laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy, a technique for elemental analysis, to analyze the chemical composition of molten metals. This can help the industry develop methods of improving material quality and lowering costs. Knowing exactly what other elements are present or absent from a batch of molten metal allows metal with appropriate qualities to be produced for a wide range of applications, she explained. 

By Louis Gore-Langton