Ceepackaging

As the sustainable packaging and waste management trends are rising all over Europe, new and stricter goals and legislations are on their way in several countries. But in too many cases, a one-sided focus on packaging reduction should be replaced by a broader view on both packaging and content. So says packaging expert Bertil Nilsson from BNI Engineering:

“We have to maintain the right barrier properties that live up to the packaging purpose. A good example is a regular green cucumber wrapped in a plastic film. From an environmental point of view, this may seem wrong, but the plastic keeps the water inside the cucumber thereby enhancing its lifespan. Therefore, we have to take both the environmental and social sustainability into account.”

“It all comes down to the right dimensioning,” Bertil Nilsson continues. “Manufacturers and their packaging suppliers must form a close coorporation on developing optimal dimensioned source reduction. By making use of all the necessary knowledge and newest technology, they can improve packaging with innovative, sustainable solutions as a result.”

Collection depends on purpose too
According to Bertil Nilsson, the pattern of the consumers is changing towards new ready-made meals and less packaging. And though packaging material has already been reduced by 20 percent from 1993 to 2003, the trend of further reductions seems to continue along with the issue of collecting used packaging.

“This is an important focus point in the Packaging Waste Directive 94/62/EC, 2004/12/EC and several countries are working seriously on establishing recovery systems. One of them is Poland where a new system, like those in Germany and Sweden, is on its way and seems to work very well. However, most of these systems do not include the packaging purpose and that is a big problem. Only when the purpose is decided, the right recovery system can be found,” Bertil Nilsson ends.