Designing packaging production process for sustainability

Iranpolymer/Baspar  One of the many challenges in adopting the circular economy concept lies in the production set up of a business operation. The shift entails investment and a transformation of the production process which could take time and resources on the part of the company.

At the 2024 ASEAN Manufacturing Summit: Creating a Circular Economy for Plastics held last August  13-14 in Jakarta, Indonesia, Mr. Henky Wibawa, Executive Director of the Indonesian Packaging Federation (IPF) and former Vice President for Education of the World Packaging Organisation (WPO), gave an interesting presentation on how packaging manufacturers can design and convert their operations to reduce their impact on the environment and meet the goals of a circular economy. International Plastics News for Asia had a quick discussion with Mr. Wibawa on his presentation.

In your presentation, you identified some major trends that affect the packaging market in every region of the world, what are these trends and their impact?

Mr. Wibawa: There are several trends that affect the global market for packaging. In my presentation, I identified the top three trends and these include: greater consumer awareness of health and wellness; stronger influence of recycling and environmental issues; and increasing disposable income and purchasing power. Consumers are increasingly becoming more conscious on the health impact of the products they buy. There is also increased awareness on environmental issues and recycling that consumers are now favoring environmentally-friendly products.

I also mentioned other important regional trends that we are seeing today. These include the rapid urbanization, the demand for convenience and increased internet retailing or e-commerce, the popularity of smaller pack sizes, as well as the implementation of enhanced branding strategies that can influence the purchasing decision of consumers.

You mentioned sustainable design in your presentation, can you give a overview of this?

Mr. Wibawa: Sustainable design is an approach to creative production that intentionally reduces the environmental and social impact. With climate change being a concern that has been affecting all industries, there is a need to reduce carbon emission. So, I started with packaging itself, the challenge that we need to know about the packaging. As we know, packaging has been created to protect the product and allows the transport or movement of the product. Without the packaging, how can we bring the product? That is the basic requirement.

But then, talking about sustainable design is that we have to keep the functionality of the product packaging and this is so important, but on the other hand, we have to redesign accordingly to be able to recycle. In my presentation, I gave some tips to guide companies embarking into the sustainability journey. One key to this is to reimagine the functionality of the product. Another is not to couple unrecyclable materials. There is also the issue of greenwashing so it is recommended to avoid accidental greenwashing. In our social media today, we see a lot of greenwashing where there is inaccurate presentation of the products as being environmentally-friendly.

This brings us to life cycle thinking, which is a way of thinking that includes the economic, environmental and social consequences of a product or process over its entire life.

How can eco-design be achieved in the production of packaging? 

Mr. Wibawa: Eco-design is a systematic and comprehensive product engineering process, aiming at reducing the environmental impacts of a products throughout their whole life cycle. The European Commission says: “Eco design implies taking into account all the environmental impact of products right from the earliest stage of design.” This avoids shifting environmental burden, e.g. eliminating a toxic substance should not lead to higher energy consumption. In packaging production, eco-design starts with top management decision on minimizing the impact of packaging on the environment.  It also aims to achieve optimum packaging – where the impact to the environment is reduced but as much as necessary to protect the product.

Eco-design through system optimization can be pursued in several ways. The amount of plastic waste can be reduced by: introducing changes to the retail industry; the introduction of deposit refund systems on food containers and other packaging items is also another area. Standardization of plastic types and colors of packaging can reduce the large variety of materials in recycling as well as the standardization of shapes and designs for food containers can help to make re-use easier and improve sorting processes. Retailers can also offer home-delivery services including the use of re-usable packaging, e.g vegetable boxes or brewery bottles; while the promotion of “bring your own packaging” in retail will encourage consumers to use their own re-usable food containers.

What are the future trends for packaging with regard to meeting the sustainability challenges?

Mr. Wibawa: As mentioned in my discussion, packaging materials continue to move towards broader sustainable options. These include biodegradable substrates that can be broken down naturally by microorganisms and assimilated back into the environment without stressing it or leaving residual materials behind to decay in landfills and emit harmful carbon dioxide. There are also bioderived plastics that are manufactured using renewable agricultural sources instead of those synthesized from fossil fuels. There are recycled materials that can repeatedly move through recycling streams instead of being removed as waste, reducing carbon footprints and promoting a circular economy, such as recycled PET and HDPE which are popular choices for packaging, and the range is growing.  These materials have enabled the creation and production of sustainable plastic packaging. In the same way, the production operations have also been designed to process these environmentally-friendly materials.

If we look at the flexible packaging, a fast-growing sector, it is growing and innovation continues owing to the development of new materials and properties. There is also greater aesthetic appeal while replacement of rigid packs by flexibles, such as pouches, have been noted. Films with recycled material content are becoming popular with environmental compliance becoming intensified.

industrysourcing