Packaging Europe Issue 15.1

VOLUME 15.1 – 2020

CLIMATE CRISIS

IS IT TIME TO REFRAME THE SUSTAINABILITY DEBATE? ROBOTICS • ADDING VALUE TO POLYMERS • AMAZON ON E-COMMERCE CHALLENGES • CONSTANTIA & SIDEL INTERVIEWS

Content Team

Sales Director

Victoria Hattersley, Libby White Elisabeth Skoda, Fin Slater

Jesse Roberts

Brand Director

Kevin Gambrill

Tim Sykes

Head of Studio Gareth Harrey

Production Manager

VOLUME 15.1 – 2020

Head of Sales Senior Sales Executive Dominic Kurkowski

Sales Executives Alain Rizk, Alex Cheung

Rob Czerwinski

Senior Audience Advertising Coordinator Development Executive Kayleigh Harvey

Andrew Wood

Operations Director

Audience Development Executive

Amber Dawson

IT Support

Dominy Jones

Syed Hassan

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ISSN 2516-0133 (Print) ISSN 02516-0141 (Online)

10 16 30 44 3 Editorial Victoria Hattersley 4 Climate crisis Packaging in the Anthropocene 7 interpack A glimpse ahead at the interpack year 10 The plastics challenge Adding value to polymers 16 Robotics How are robotics meeting today’s packaging challenges?

22 Circularise The start-up interview: Is blockchain a key to the circular economy?

26 E-commerce Amazon: Addressing the challenges of e-commerce 30 Anti-counterfeiting Digital vs physical – which anti-counterfeiting technology is best?

34 Rockwell Automation Bringing people, process and technology together 36 Constantia Constantia interview: Addressing the circularity challenge 41 Fraunhofer Researching the pressing packaging issues of today 44 Sidel Talking sustainability and efficiency with Sidel 48 On second thoughts... Turning waste into currency: Regenerative business in action

EDITORIAL |

I

t’s a new (ish) year and for many that means a new start. In that vein, I’d like to start by announcing an exciting product launch from the Packaging Europe team: ‘Touchpoints’ is a brand-new platform focusing specifically on consumer experience from the perspective of design, smart packaging, e-commerce, personalization and materials.

But for us, the start of 2020 has also been our chance to solidify an approach we’ve been skirting around for some time now. Along with many other media outlets, we’re looking to reframe the sustainability debate around our global climate crisis. To this end, our brand director Tim Sykes begins the first issue of 2020 with the question: should we put carbon first – even over other pressing issues such as plastic waste – and what does that mean for packaging?

Of course, 2020 also means that interpack is back, and it’s billed to be bigger than ever. Kicking off our extensive coverage of the show this year, Elisabeth Skoda takes a first look at the overarching topics that are set to define interpack 2020. She also finds out about ‘out of the box’ ideas addressing the challenges facing the packaging industry from Prof. Dr Andrea Büttner, the recently appointed director of the Fraunhofer Institute for Process Engineering and Packaging IVV. In addition, this year will see us give increased attention to some of the newer faces on the packaging playing field. Alongside our continued coverage of the more established companies, we will be putting the spotlight on a variety of innovative start-ups looking to shake up the industry. This issue it is the turn of Circularise, a protocol which utilizes technologies such as blockchain and cryptographic techniques to promote a circular economy.

On the topic of ‘adding value to polymers’, Libby White explores material and chemistry innovation, asking the vital question: how can performance be extended in plastic packaging by adding properties?

Libby’s been busy, in fact: at the tail end of last year she took a trip to the Rockwell Automation Fair in Chicago, where she had a sneak peek at some upcoming launches. In light of this, she explores how

Victoria Hattersley Senior Writer

collaboration is driving innovation within industry 4.0 and how this in turn can support a brand in streamlining efficiency and adding to its sustainable outlook.

I’d also like to introduce the newest member of our content team, Fin Slater, who in this edition will be casting an eye over the latest in anticounterfeiting solutions. Key areas up for discussion include holograms, luminescent topcoats and track & trace.

As usual, we’ve been getting expert perspectives on some of the biggest questions facing the packaging world. Amazon’s Kim Houchens discusses the challenges of optimizing packaging for the booming e-commerce channel. Meanwhile, Constantia’s CEO Alexander Baumgartner talks frankly to Tim Sykes about sustainability dilemmas and the quest to bring monomaterial alternatives to the market.

But there’s something I’m forgetting, I hear you cry? That’s right – the 2020 Sustainability Awards is now open for entries. This year we’re excited to announce that the winners will be revealed in a special awards dinner at our very own Sustainable Packaging Summit on 15–16 October in the European Green Capital, Lisbon. Note that the emphasis here is on ‘summit’ rather than ‘conference’: the event will break familiar paradigms with a sharp focus on practical discussion that moves stakeholders forward on key sustainability dilemmas. As ever, the Sustainability Awards is free to enter, so if you have an innovation the world needs to know about, now’s the time to get your entry prepared.

Go to: thesustainabilityawards.com

Victoria Hattersley Victoria Hattersley vh@packagingeurope.com @PackEuropeVicky

Packaging Europe | 3 |

PACKAGING IN THE ANTHROPOCENE In a world heading towards climate crisis, Packaging Europe’s Tim Sykes calls for a radical reframing of the sustainability agenda. who engage with scientific understanding of reality understand that we are engaged in a struggle to avert a climate catastrophe. The Paris Agreement sought to mitigate the effects of a warming climate by aiming to limit the temperature rise to 1.5 degrees. It involved accepting the inevitability of severe environmental impacts but taking drastic action to avoid a more existentially threatening catalogue of consequences – melting ice caps, rising sea levels, increased drought, flooding, crop failures and habitat loss, and population displacement. This goal requires a 45% cut in carbon emissions by 2030 and zero emissions by 2050.

This in itself was a daunting task in the face of a growing global middle class and nearly 200 countries attempting to balance medium-term industrial transformation against short-term economic and political pressures. Since then a swathe of governments have been elected that are overtly hostile to the aims of the Paris Agreement. In 2019 Brazil’s newly elected president Jair Bolsonaro promised to strip the Amazon rainforest of its legal protections, opening the way to an upsurge in logging that would make dangerous levels of climate change almost inevitable. In November the Trump administration deposited notification of its withdrawal from the Paris Agreement.

Is that it? Is it time to give up on the 1.5-degree ceiling, accept the environmental and human costs will be catastrophic, and switch attention to survival on a dying planet? No, I propose that each of us has a personal responsibility, and the organizations we belong to have a corporate duty, to show leadership while parts of the political class fail us.

Polar bears and turtles

T

he scale to which humans have transformed and monopolized our planet is widely unappreciated. A shocking but under-reported biomass census conducted by the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel found that just 4% of biomass of mammals on earth is wild animals. The remainder is made up by homo sapiens (36%) and our livestock (a staggering 60%). Similarly, 70% of bird biomass consists of chickens and other poultry; 30% is wild birds.

The story of the Anthropocene – the age of humans – is a history of natural destruction. So far we’ve eliminated 83% of wild mammal biomass and 50% of plant biomass. We haven’t finished.

Industrial civilization has accelerated this usurpation of the natural world, bringing a further environmental impact in the form of global warming. Those | 4 | Packaging Europe

What does this mean for packaged goods? For our own industry leadership in the first place means ensuring we put climate impacts at the forefront of our behaviour and our communications. To date, a number of the leading global brand owners and retailers have published noteworthy carbon policies, though as a whole the CPG giants aren’t as concrete in their commitments and their climate route-maps as in their respective plastic waste pledges. Decarbonization must rise to the top of our agenda if FMCG is to play its part in driving change.

If the first step is to define priorities, the next is substantive engagement with the core challenges. Climate crisis demands that we ask questions of our fundamental packaging strategies, and it must be central to how as an industry we mediate discussions on how to integrate CPG into a circular economy. This does not mean taking climate imperatives as an excuse to neglect packaging

“In responding to heartbreaking images of entangled sea turtles we can’t delay decarbonization – we must formulate new, low-carbon and circular packaging systems”

waste obligations. On the other hand, we will not be forgiven if in responding to heartbreaking images of entangled sea turtles we delay radical decarbonization – or worse, switch to more carbon intensive strategies or adopt recyclable packaging that results in increased food waste.

Packaging isn’t visible in our pictures of polar bears struggling to exist as sea ice recedes, or as warming oceans destroy marine and terrestrial ecosystems, but we must keep these pictures in mind as we formulate new, low-carbon and circular packaging systems. Whether this involves using plastics, renewables or infinitely recyclable materials, and where it’s appropriate to recycle single-use packaging or reuse containers must be driven empirically.

Another core challenge is decarbonizing while simultaneously adapting to a transformation of consumption habits. Analysis released at the World Economic Forum last month projects that urban last-mile delivery emissions will increase by more than 36% by 2030 in the top 100 cities globally due to the e-commerce boom. This isn’t only a question of transportation. Cube efficiency and product protection paradigms honed over decades based on a bricks-and-mortar retail model are being reformulated in response to the shift to direct-to-consumer delivery. Getting these systems and solutions right will directly impact on the carbon footprint of future consumption.

Clarity and transparency Above all, this generational task requires honesty. This begins with clarity about our objectives and transparency in our actions. It demands science-based decisions and specifications. Crucially, it means an end to promoting solutions on the basis LCAs that are produced by independent consultancies with rigorous methodology, only relying on ‘friendly’ assumptions about all those variables that can drastically impact on the findings. If we could ask for one contribution from the regulatory community, investment and standardization around truly independent benchmarking would be at the top of my wish list.

We’ll also need the kind of granular transparency that some of the global industry leaders and initiatives such as New Plastics Economy are now bringing to circular economy pledges. As a first step, let’s be clear about definitions.

When a business commits to a carbon emissions reduction, is it referring to internal production efficiencies or absolute reductions? Is this commitment set against the 2010 baseline, which equates to a 58% reduction on 2015 levels?

An altogether more uncomfortable question is whether in some cases the packaged goods we consume and sell simply aren’t very good for the biosphere. Is packaging justified on the basis that it minimizes the environmental impacts of an inherently unsustainable product? For instance, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reported last year that reducing consumption

of meat will be a crucial pillar in reducing carbon emissions. It’s axiomatic that it’s better to use a small amount of resource efficient packaging to prevent wastage of an energy-intensive product. But do we need that product in the first place? Do we eat too much meat? Do we eat too much produce that is out of season in our planetary hemisphere? These are questions we can ignore today but which angry consumers will be asking their favourite brands and retailers tomorrow.

Collective responsibility We have ten years to honour the Paris Agreement commitments, and we can only drive progress by mobilizing the same collaborative will that has been demonstrated in the face of the packaging waste crisis.

For our part, in 2020 Packaging Europe will seek to push the climate crisis to the top of the packaging agenda. This will not only frame our yearround reporting and commentary, but also our special green initiatives. The practical implications of achieving decarbonization and a circular economy will be the focus of discussions as the leaders of FMCG, packaging, recycling and regulation come together at the Sustainable Packaging Summit in Lisbon (European Green Capital 2020). I also hope to see outstanding examples of climate leadership in submissions to this year’s Sustainability Awards, whose winners will be revealed at the Summit.

Now is the time to engage, organize and act.

Join us at the Sustainable Packaging Summit, Lisbon, 15-16 October: PackagingSummit.earth Sustainability Awards 2020 submissions are now open, until 6th April: theSustainabilityAwards.com

Tim Sykes

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| 6 | Packaging Europe

A GLIMPSE AHEAD AT THE INTERPACK YEAR

2020 is the year that interpack is back – and the world’s largest packaging event is set to be bigger and better than ever. Hosted in Düsseldorf in Germany from 7–13 May, interpack targets professionals in the fields of food, drink, confectionery, bakery products, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, non-food consumer goods and industrial goods, and we can expect to see a wide range of innovations and technological developments on show. We will of course be covering interpack extensively in the upcoming issues of Packaging Europe. This article aims to offer just a glimpse into some of the industry talking points for 2020.

2020

is shaping up to be another interesting year for the packaging industry, with sustainability remaining firmly at the top of the agenda. Even more than in previous years, finding a balance between combating packaging waste, especially plastic waste, and addressing the climate crisis by reducing the carbon footprint are top of the list of issues that need to be addressed.

It appears that the pendulum of public and political perception is still swinging more towards plastic waste being considered the biggest stumbling block on the road to sustainability. In a recent interview in German newspaper Die Welt, the new EU Commissioner for Environment, Virginijus Sinkevičius, considered the possibility of a general ban on plastic packaging, building on the single-use plastic ban. He was keen to expand the rules for single-use plastics and he stated that the Commission was currently investigating how to achieve that, whether it be banning plastic packaging or prescribing the use of recycled plastic.

These comments come at a time when many bodies are arguing that plastic packaging bans may be doing more harm than good. According to a new report published by Green Alliance, firms are increasingly turning towards non-plastic alternatives, which it argues might ultimately be more harmful to the planet in terms of CO2 emissions.

Packaging Europe | 7 |

Thomas Dohse

public discussion it seems that sustainability is easily achieved by just avoiding plastics. However, there is no such thing as one single kind of sustainable packaging. The products to be packaged and with it the requirements for packaging are far too different. Bioplastics have been a part of interpack since 2008 and I expect to see some more alternative materials at interpack 2020.

The circular economy and recycling will further gain in importance.”

Modularity and streamlined production

Avoiding over-simplification Thomas Dohse, deputy director at interpack, Messe Düsseldorf GmbH, warns of an over-simplification of the sustainability debate.

“Sustainable solutions and materials are required for packaging, not least due to public pressure to substitute materials which have a reputation of being non-environmentally friendly. Plastic packaging is under pressure and in

| 8 | Packaging Europe

He observes that the varieties of products, be it in the area of flavours or different seasons, is immense, creating a need for machines with short changeover times for products, quantities and formats.

“Modular concepts are in demand, in which lines can be expanded or newly combined as required to serve a wide range of applications. Safe and hygienically flawless production is crucial and requires machines and systems that can be cleaned safely and quickly.”

He adds energy efficiency to the list of trends that we can expect solutions for at interpack.

“Companies are faced with the challenge of making optimum use of scarce resources and increasing production efficiency. This applies both to the production and the use of materials. A central starting point for increasing efficiency in production and reducing costs is the optimal use of energy, water and raw materials. I am sure that we will see improvements in technology at interpack 2020.”

One key challenge for the packaging industry is to meet customers’ demands while not compromising the function of the packaging and keeping the costs low, especially in the food and beverage industry, while also dealing with competition and a battle for markets and consumers.

“High energy costs and fluctuating raw material prices affect production costs and put pressure on margins. Growing cost pressure therefore increasingly focuses on efficient processes. The optimization of production processes can offer a solution. Optimally coordinated production processes can reduce time, resources and costs,” says Mr Dohse.

For this reason, overall equipment effectiveness is becoming more and more important. Solutions for minimizing organizational losses that occur during setup, maintenance, cleaning and product changes are the levers to keep the actual production time as low as possible.

“Digitization helps to make production more efficient throughout the lifecycle, whether in terms of energy consumption, predictive maintenance or selfadaptation in the event of process deviations. Optimizing production and thus increasing efficiency are ultimately the core objectives,” he adds.

‘Life without Packaging?’

Hosted at interpack on 12 May, 2020, the new ‘Life without Packaging?’ conference highlights the subject areas of packaging, sustainability and the environment and presents different perspectives, with critics and advocates both able to have their say. The event will focus on sustainability and environmental impact, hygiene and the reduction of food waste.

At the event, Alexander Baumgartner, CEO at Constantia Flexibles, will speak on the subject ‘Packaging – Perception & Reality’. He observes that the packaging debate is led in a very emotional manner.

“When I get asked what I do for a living, and I say I work in the plastics packaging industry, people generally have a strongly negative reaction. From a public opinion point of view, plastic packaging could be described as being in a similar position as the tobacco industry was ten years ago. When I start explaining the value of packaging in terms of hygiene and product preservation, they look at the matter differently. After all, if you go to hospital and need a blood transfusion, wouldn’t you prefer to have the blood packaged hygienically in plastics? And it’s not really so different for many foods.”

He anticipates the topics of recyclability and CO2 emissions being major talking points at interpack. “For me, the balance between recyclability and CO2 emission reduction will be the name of the game in our industry. We have to prove to politicians and consumers that things are improving – it is a journey.”

A shift in the retail landscape Mr Baumgartner has observed a development of big brands losing shares, and smaller, more agile companies taking a bigger slice of the cake, especially with the younger generation – with effects on the packaging industry.

“Young people shop differently today. My daughter is 21 and, for example, uses a dishwasher product I’ve never seen before – a Californian brand that is billed as being organic and biodegradable. She buys it because it tells a story. The proliferation of smaller brands taking over market shares increases the complexity and the number of SKUs for the packaging industry. Unfortunately, this makes creating sustainable solutions more challenging. The higher the number of SKUs, the higher the waste rate is. The demand here is definitely not for bigger packaging factories, but more agile, flexible units to serve the market.”

Packaging Europe | 9 |

ADDING VALUE TO POLYMERS The end How do we determine the value of polymers in a Libby Munford asked Damien van Leuven, CEO of plastics recycling company vast global marketplace, and with a balancing act Vanden Recycling, for his opinion on this subject. “Education in the packagbetween developing solutions by adding properties ing design community is the starting point. If anything, scrap recyclers like us to polymers (to help save food waste for example), and product designers should be the ones working closest together because versus the overall carbon emissions and sustainability we feel the impact of good or bad design and can educate about the impacts what will actually happen to the material. To have anyone between these of the packaging material? Let’s start at the end of life, and two parties only muddies the waters.” focusing on the recyclability of polymers.

He continues that inconsistencies in legislation, landfill fees, recycling targets, responsibility placed on producers and overall education are the combination of factors that produce so many different grades of scrap plastics. The core challenge is that different grades require different recycling infrastructure. | 10 | Packaging Europe

Damien van Leuven

Sorting, washing, filtering systems and quality of finished product will all vary depending on the input quality. This is one of the reasons scrap material is shipped around the world for recycling, because often there are no domestic facilities to treat the material in an appropriate manner. Therefore the only option is to leverage facilities that are capable of doing so in other countries.

David Wilson, MD adds that the realities of the circular economy will soon start to bite and the packaging industry holds its fate in its own hands. He says, “The thrust of much of the upcoming national and international regulations will use sticks and carrots to simultaneously increase the recyclability of packaging materials and encourage the use of recyclates in packaging.”

Two things need to happen in addition to that if we are to turn these sticks and carrots into progress, according to David Wilson. “Firstly to be rigorous in the collection of low-hanging fruit like production waste. Secondly industry across the supply chain needs to work closely with local and national government to have simple straightforward instructions about the recyclability of packaging, not just whether packaging is theoretically recyclable but is actually collected and goes back into products.”

The key is for the packaging industry to fully understand that it is part of the solution by creating supply that’s more easily recycled and demand by including recycled content, as tough as both those requirements seem. After that the other parts of the supply chain need to preserve material quality by maintaining segregation of waste materials.

David Wilson

Rising to the challenge So how are leading packaging and materials manufacturers innovating with polymer structures to rise to the challenges of the marketplace?

Jacek Madry, Global Business Leader, Hytrel®, Vamac® and Multibase™, DuPont says they consider a material’s sustainability – and discuss it with customers and suppliers – at each stage of the new product development process: “Our products support extended lifespans for end applications, enable more-effective manufacturing to reduce energy consumption and scrap, and often permit lower-complexity formulations in support of recyclability.”

He believes innovations will continue, but they will fall under the umbrella of sustainability: “Protection of our environment is driving every aspect of the packaging industry today, starting with changes in consumer behaviour and spending patterns. The entire packaging value chain is responding to the needs of the planet, whether it means using more energy-efficient processes, designing durable, multi-use products, taking a designed-to-recycle approach or setting up a circular economy.” As sustainability gains further momentum, DuPont is actively focused on material innovations that support this trend.

Gabriel Chemie is focusing on solutions for making polymers more intelligent, improving their performance in the circular economy and making masterbatch fit for changes in society such as the rise of Generation Z. Mark Hannah, head of corporate marketing, Gabriel Chemie, shares for example they have

“The thrust of much of the upcoming national and international regulations will use sticks and carrots to simultaneously increase the recyclability of packaging materials and encourage the use of recyclates in packaging.”

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recently introduced solutions for colouring plastics in PCR and PIR materials, carbon-free NIR black masterbatch and non-ferrous NIR black masterbatch to support the circular economy.

He adds, “Functional additives can be easily dosed to the polymer and also easily combined with other additives or colour in the same masterbatch. This results in a mono-polymer construction of packaging that helps to facilitate sorting and separating in the recycling process.

“It makes no sense for us to create solutions that aren’t effective along the whole value chain. Austria and Germany are home to some of the world’s leading manufacturers of machinery for recycling (NGR, Erema, Starlinger, Tomra etc). This gives us the opportunity to work closely with these manufacturers to develop closed-loop solutions that can also be more effectively recycled after use. We will also be part of an EU financed project next year to look at plastics through the whole of the cycle in a circular economy. More info on this will come in 2020.”

In addition, Gabriel Chemie also has a very strong CSR drive within the company. This involves reducing its energy consumption and recycling more of its internal waste. Mark Hannah adds, “The daughter of our CEO (we are a 100% family owned company) has recently joined the board as chief sustainability officer, we will launch our first CSR report in Q1 2020. We are also investing in a large sustainable energy project (more details in Q1 2020).”

Gabriel Chemie expects to see a drive to improve the quality of recycled material and packaging and to improve more recycling materials towards food contact grade. It sees demand for packaging that is both suitable for the circular economy and attractive for consumers at the point of sale.

“This is not so easy and should open up many opportunities for innovation,” underlines Mark Hannah. | 12 | Packaging Europe

Dr Julien Renvoise, recycling and marketing manager EMEA, polystyrene, Trinseo, embellishes on the key trends driving innovation in this field.

He states that resource reduction (e.g. energy efficiency, light-weighting, downgauging, foaming, combination of materials, design-assistance, etc.), total-system-cost savings by combining/leveraging materials and technologies, and a focus on ‘design-to-recycle’, technology developments supporting circular economy solutions are key. Trinseo also offers a series of post-consumer recycled content-containing resins, EMERGE™ ECO Series, that allow product designers to create products that are more environmentally friendly.

Trinseo is very active in this field and engaged and committed to developing circular economy solutions. This includes its participation in Styrenics Circular Solutions (SCS) and several other post-consumer waste initiatives, and many interactions with all participants in the value chain, including brand owners, waste management companies and recyclers.

“The entire polystyrene industry recognized that full circularity of polystyrene is a task too large for one single company to conquer. That is why the value chain has come together under SCS, a joint industry initiative that drives the shift to a more circular economy for styrenics,” states Dr Julien Renvoise.

Through SCS, Trinseo signed up last year to become a member of the Circular Plastics Alliance. The Circular Plastics Alliance gathers public and private stakeholders (recyclers, plastics association, brandowners, municipalities, government, etc…) in the plastics value chain to promote voluntary actions and commitments for more recycled plastics. The Circular Plastics Alliance wants to ensure that 10 million tonnes of recycled plastics are used to make products in Europe by 2025. This European alliance is an important

Mark Hannah

platform to engage with the whole value chain and encourage collaboration to allow the transition from a linear to a circular plastics economy.

“Our efforts and investments are critical to meet the ambitious recycling targets set by an increasing number of countries around the world. Our approach is contributing to moving away from the linear plastic economy to a circular approach, protecting the environment and saving valuable resources,” says Dr Renvoise.

He expects to see over the next few years development of mono-plastic solutions (ie. less complex, easier to recycle), and the development and massive use of high-quality (including food contact grade) post-consumer plastics.

New business models will emerge for plastics, and societal behaviour will be incentivized by monetizing plastic waste. He also predicts resin producers will buy recyclers and there will be more assessments of the carbon footprint of the plastics over their whole life cycle (water usage, GHG, waste usage, etc…).

Enhancing properties Many customers are looking towards the modification of polymer properties with additives so they can enhance polymer properties such as better scratch resistance or reduced noise, enhance processing efficiency, and expand their product portfolio with entirely new solutions and explore new applications or markets.

These objectives align with megatrends such as sustainability, where modified polymers can support initiatives including reducing waste, lowering energy consumption and increasing the durability of final products.

The recently launched DOW CORNING™ AMB-12235 masterbatch is designed to address these needs. This silicone-based masterbatch for multilayer polyethylene blown films extends properties by combining two capabilities – slip and anti-block – in one solution. It enhances processing

“The entire polystyrene industry recognized that full circularity of polystyrene is a task too large for one single company to conquer. That is why the value chain has come together under SCS.”

Dr Julien Renvoise

by improving slip performance – particularly for tacky resins (plastomers) – over time and under high temperature conditions. This stable and consistent slip performance over the long term contributes to increased production speed, uninterrupted throughput and uniform film quality.

Film converting processes, particularly form-fill-seal (FFS), require high throughput. Packaging units cannot afford inconsistent speeds or even loss of speed during the bagging step. This speed is affected by the friction generated by contact between the film and metallic parts, which should be as low as possible.

Before it arrives at the FFS operation, the film goes through multiple converting steps that can affect the coefficient of friction. The length of the conversion process is one reason why extended and stable slip performance is important.

Organic slip additives do not provide this performance.

Further, to support sustainability, the masterbatch reduces waste in several ways: its anti-block properties help prevent wasteful tearing of the film; it is effective at low loadings; and it can potentially replace plastic processing additives often used with PE films, thereby reducing total additive usage.

Polymer modification has always involved a search for balance in order to optimize properties, the cost/performance ratio and usability. Multibase, DOW CORNING’s silicone-based masterbatch business, consists of extremely knowledgeable and passionate engineers who relentlessly search for that balance.

In the case of its DOW CORNING™ AMB-12235 masterbatch, the primary objective was to address customers’ desires to achieve consistent, long-term, excellent slip performance for films made with plastomers throughout the various converting steps of the FFS packaging operation. Today, very few additives can effectively lower the COF in highly tacky ethylene resins.

The team also aimed to help customers balance the compatibility and performance of anti-block and slip additives in PE blown film. In the past, customers had to use trial and error to determine which individual additives worked well together, and at which loadings. DuPont formulated its masterbatch to ensure up-front compatibility between the anti-block and slip capabilities and to provide the best ratio of active ingredients. DOW CORNING™ AMB-12235 masterbatch achieves synergistic effects through the right combination and amount of each active ingredient.

An important aspect of additive use is achieving the desired properties without negative side effects. In PE blown film for form-fill-seal packaging, using slip additives to lower the coefficient of friction is critical for efficient processing, yet some traditional slip additives can migrate between film layers and affect downstream operations such as printing and metallization.

Packaging Europe | 13 |

Its masterbatch is designed to be used only for the film layer (skin layer) where low COF is needed to prevent adherence to metal rollers during processing. It will not migrate to other layers. For this reason, film containing DOW CORNING™ AMB-12235 Masterbatch in the skin layer can safely be corona treated on the opposite layer even after the film has been rolled.

With this additive, it is also possible to store the film for extended periods or in warm temperature conditions without negative impact on COF. This stability and non-migration give converters a higher degree of flexibility than traditional slip additives.

By using a masterbatch combining two capabilities in one solution that delivers high performance at low loadings, customers can reduce the overall number and quantity of additives that they use. They can also consolidate feeders and prevent waste that can occur when traditional additives are exposed to high temperatures or extended storage.

‘Anti’ additives Christina Normann Christensen, product & application manager, nonfood, Palsgaard A/S sees a shift towards more recyclable and sustainable packaging materials as this is also a topic that is top of mind for the end consumers. She stresses that Palsgaard’s products fit very well into these trends as they are recyclable and sustainable.

“The continued tightening of legislation in terms of polymers and additives drives the search for and interest in safe solutions with desira| 14 | Packaging Europe

bly the same performance,” she explains. The challenge is to fulfil these high expectations, “but in Palsgaard’s case with antistatic and antifog additives we have the fundamental knowledge within our chemistry and have been able to develop and validate the performance of our plant based and food grade additives which is comparable and even superior in performance.”

Its additives are quite versatile and can be used in multilayer, monomaterial or thin walled packaging. “So, while they cannot motivate a change from packaging type to another, you are able to use our additive in all the packaging designs,” she adds.

Its products are plant based, food grade and produced in CO2 neutral facilities, making them highly sustainable. At the same time, they are added in very low dosages because of the high efficiency which also means, combined with the thermal stability, that when the scrap is mixed with virgin material in the packaging production there is no concern for contamination or discolouration.

The same goes for post-consumer recycling where the polymer containing its additives can easily be used as recyclates.

She says, “Our products offer ease of handling and improve appearance with their antistatic and antifogging effects which leads to the packaged products being visually more appealing to customers as they are dust- or fog-free. Thereby, the resources that have been put into the products are fully utilized. Einar® 601 is one of our top antistatic additives which performs excellently across a broad range of PE applications at low loading levels and

“The continued tightening of legislation in terms of polymers and additives drives the search for and interest in safe solutions with desirably the same performance.”

plaints)? ), and material tracking (machine parameters of manufacture can be stored in the plastic and identified throughout the lifetime of the product),” says Mark Hannah.

He also points towards a clear trend in society towards veganism, especially amongst consumers in generation Z, which has led us to the development of vegan certified masterbatches, especially for the packaging of food and medical products. In addition, Gabriel Chemie is addressing the increasing demand for Halal products with a Halal certified masterbatch range.

Increasing pressures in low humidity conditions. Einar® 611 offers short- and long-term antifog performance in both hot- and cold-fog PE applications due to the high extraction resistance.”

Intelligent solutions and societal changes Gabriel Chemie also shares a solution it has developed called TagTec, which was launched at the K-Show 2019. “We use special pigments called taggants, to give the polymer an invisible ‘fingerprint’. The information contained in the fingerprint can be read using special sensors that we have developed together with a partner. In this way plastic parts can offer more functionality such as material identification (i.e. is it PP or LDPE or PET?), anti-counterfeit functionality (is the part a fake?, Who manufactured the material (quality com-

Dr Julien Renvoise shares that immobility of markets and a focus on lowest short-term cost (incumbent technology is often mature and cost optimized through economy of scale, whereas innovative solutions carry development costs and often start at suboptimal scale – often also requiring many players along the value chain to invest in capital, know-how, development), poses a challenge to innovation in this field overall.

Mark Hannah leaves us with a stark thought: “Resources are always an issue. There are many new developments needed in masterbatch and especially in the circular economy discussion has increased the pace of development.”

Finding and retaining the right talent, as well as funding new developments, is becoming increasingly challenging as the global economy is slowing down and the public image of plastics has come under pressure.

Packaging Europe | 15 |

| 16 | Packaging Europe

HOW ARE ROBOTICS MEETING TODAY’S PACKAGING CHALLENGES? Whether we’re talking about traditional industrial robots, cobots or mobile robots, automation will have a central role to play in factories both today and in the future. Victoria Hattersley highlights some of the biggest challenges related to robotics in the packaging industry, and asks representatives from some of the world’s leading producers how they are addressing these.

T

he packaging challenges facing manufacturers and brand owners today call for complex solutions. Increasingly, manufacturing processes in FMCG are driven by consumer demands for aspects like greater customization, faster turnaround times and more unusual packages, not to mention their growing social consciousness which means – quite rightly – they are putting pressure on the industry to offer more sustainable and ethical solutions.

Take food, for example: “Nowadays the production aspects linked to food are as important as the product itself,” says Paolo Cavallanti, of Omron Industrial Automation Europe. “The final consumer is increasingly questioning the supply chain upstream of the food he buys, the resources consumed by the industry that produced it, the working conditions and the safety conditions of the operator. We therefore have to always consider the consumer in production considerations: ever more attentive to issues such as sustainability, safety, wellbeing and quality at the right cost.”

Robotics technology is evolving to meet these demands with ever-more sophisticated applications. When they were first introduced, industrial robots were mainly employed for more basic tasks like lifting heavy loads; now they can be used for a huge range of more complicated tasks for primary, secondary or tertiary packaging, from de-panning to de-nesting, pick-andplace and so on. We also know that the installation of robotic systems can allow a manufacturer to quickly and efficiently scale up production.

Adaptability: ‘The main obstacle to automation’ Brand owners and packaging manufacturers require automated systems with ever-greater flexibility and adaptability to meet the above consumer demands for smaller batch sizes and personalization, and robotics producers are continuously evolving their offering accordingly.

“When it comes to the packaging and product handling sectors, the main obstacle to automation has to do with adaptability, as not all machines are able to pick up products of unique size, shape or weight,” says Richard Mawson, sales manager of OnRobot. “Therefore, a warehouse picking and packaging a

diverse range of goods needs a versatile solution. Today’s robotic arms can be fitted with end effectors which add a high degree of flexibility to the application.

These intelligent tools can detect the product type, adjusting their grip to its size in order to be more effective.”

Many of today’s solutions are highly customizable, which means they are capable of handling a wide range of complex applications. Take OnRobot’s recently released VGC10 – a highly configurable electric vacuum gripper which is “ideal for confined environments and smaller robot arms, while still offering a

“When it comes to the packaging and product handling sectors, the main obstacle to automation has to do with adaptability.” payload of 15kg,” continues Richard Mawson. “Unlike other vacuum grippers, our VGC10 doesn’t require a compressor or air supply, making the set-up infinitely simpler and quicker. It also features easily interchangeable suction cup options, enabling swift addition or replacement to fit specific application needs.”

But we are also seeing increasing deployment not of traditional industrial robots (although these certainly still have their place) but of cobots. This is of course a topic we have addressed in various ways in recent years, but the pace of change is such that it’s necessary to return to it at regular intervals.

“Markets like food and cosmetics are most suitable for cobots,” says Paolo Cavallanti. “For packaging applications our cobots can inspect and sort products, before putting them into cases. Customers can quickly adapt production lines to new products or seasonal models.” This ability to adapt at speed is essential in today’s fast-paced consumer-driven marketplace.

We are also seeing more flexible switching between modes, with different kinds of robotic solutions working together simultaneously to enhance productivity. “More manufacturers are exploring mobile manipulator Packaging Europe | 17 |

solutions to combine the benefits of collaborative robots with autonomous mobile robotics, so they can deploy the most agile solution into their factories,” adds Mr Cavallanti.

And when it comes to smaller batch sizes, “We currently see no restrictions on the extended use of robots,” says Peter Pühringer, General Manager Robotics Germany at Stäubli. “On the contrary – with the number of product variants continually increasing at the same time that batch sizes are decreasing, the optimal solution lies in flexible automation.”

“Unlike their industrial cousins, cobots are designed with seamless integration in mind.”

Efficiency and simplicity: The ‘game-changers’ Of course, making life simpler and more efficient for the customers – the packaging manufacturers and brand owners – is also key for our interviewees.

Robotics producer Cama’s lines are designed so that each robot is an integral part of the production line. “The software is unique for the machine so no black box is required,” says Alessandro Rocca, the company’s sales engineering director. “Other companies may have to integrate robots manufactured by another company into their lines, which in the case of a breakdown means they have to call in the other brand to fix the problem which costs both time and money. Having the robots integrated directly into the production line is a far simpler solution.”

And again, cobots will also have an important role to play when it comes to simplifying processes. “Unlike their industrial cousins, cobots are designed with seamless integration in mind,” says Mark Gray, UK sales manager at | 18 | Packaging Europe

Universal Robots. “Engineered as an out-of-the-box solution, an untrained operator can unpack, mount and program a cobot in less than an hour. From a business view, this means that companies can maximize their throughput, accelerate their time-to-market and, crucially, achieve ROI in no time at all.”

Many companies in the field of robotics – Cama and Omron being just two examples – are also pushing towards greater use of vision-driven robots in production lines. Industrial robots use machine vision algorithms to locate and arrange parts and verify operations.

“We are particularly enthusiastic about this for the food sector, where you need the pick and place capabilities to cope with thousands of products a minute – some of which are quite delicate – so it’s always challenging and this is where vision systems can really make a difference,” says Mr Rocca.

Omron is also fully embracing vision technology, with its Integrated Vision System designed for industrial grade pattern recognition, object positioning and feature identification. Users of this system can set up vision tasks for immediate deployment without going through various complex steps of integrating external cameras or lighting equipment.

“Our Integrated Vision System can be used a plug and play system,” says Mr Cavallanti. “It takes a long time to program industrial robots, but with IVS it’s much easier to program and deploy cobotic applications in assembly lines now.”

Plug and play has been described as a ‘game-changer’ in terms of simplification (and also cost-effectiveness). “Automating a task becomes much simpler and more cost effective when you can simply order the required endof-arm-tool ‘off the shelf’ rather than have to get something custom-made,” says Mark Gray.

In the future, vision systems are likely to become ever-sharper and more high-definition, facilitating greater integration between robots and the human eye.

Humans and machines: ‘A cultural shift’ This last point brings us on to a specific challenge faced by manufacturers when they are looking to implement robots into their production lines: how do they ensure seamless integration with their human counterparts? This is a necessary question to address: cobots in particular will change the way factories work. With no need for physical cages and designed for flexible, low- or high-volume production, they will increasingly be working alongside – not just in addition to – humans. Does this present safety issues?

Meanwhile, there may also be concerns among the existing workforce that with a higher degree of automation, fewer workers will be needed – or that there will be a greater emphasis on more skilled workers such as software engineers and programmers, at the expense of manual workers.

To address this challenge, therefore, can be as much of a cultural as a technological transformation within a company. “We are assisting companies today in a change of paradigm,” adds Mr Cavallanti. “Who is delivering what?

The cobots or the human? Is the worker assisting the cobot or the cobot assisting the worker? This is what we have to overcome, more than the technical aspect.”

OnRobot’s Richard Mawson agrees with this viewpoint: “It’s a common fear among the workforce that an increased robotic adoption may cause them to lose their jobs. A shift in mindset and a better understanding of how robots can, in fact, support and upskill workers would certainly help drive a wider uptake of robots in the packaging industry, as well as in other spaces.”

In part, this also speaks to the fifth industrial revolution we have all been talking so much about – a stronger collaboration between man and machine, with the emphasis on the human factor. “Here is how collaborative robotics takes on a decisive role,” adds Mr Cavallanti, “becoming that paradigm shift that is able to support companies in coping with the scenario changes taking place and – at the same time – to change the perception of the technological and cultural approach that is necessary to adopt at the threshold of the fifth industrial revolution.”

Then there are the inevitable safety considerations that come from humans and machines working more closely together. Does it put humans at risk? Will it lead to more accidents? Not so, according to Mark Gray. “When it comes to safety, as their name suggests, cobots are designed to work in close proximity to their human counterparts. In fact, we are witnessing a growing trend of manufacturers integrating cobots into their operations to improve staff safety.”

“We are assisting today in companies a change of paradigm. Who is delivering what? The cobots or the human? Is the worker assisting the cobot or the cobot assisting the worker?”

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He gives the example of Carlsberg’s Danish facility. Previously, employees at its Fredericia-based factory had been suffering from repetitive strain from carrying packaging cartons from the pallet to the magazine, or sustained cuts while removing the packaging cable. In order to work towards its zero-accident initiative, the company has therefore, he tells us, invested in two UR cobots.

The cost factor: ‘The alternative is being left behind’ But any such large investment requires considerable thought – particularly for those SMEs who lack the spare capital of the global players. For some of these, there may still be some reluctance to ‘bite the bullet’ from this perspective, quite apart from the above-mentioned cultural and safety considerations.

“For sure, robotics cost more than conventional factory machinery,” says Alessandro Rocca. “Some medium-sized customers are sometimes reluctant to invest because they fear it is costly, unknown, needs a lot of maintenance and knowledge. But the total cost of ownership is the same in the end – and the alternative is being left behind.”

Robotics could also bring costs savings when it comes to product protection – and hence waste reduction. Universal Robots’ smaller cobots, for example, are used to complete high-precision tasks such as packaging eggs, without damaging them – always a risk when the task is completed by hand.

Stäubli robots are also available for demanding applications. “The HE [Humid Environment] and NSF H1 [food-grade oil] variants of these robots are also able to manage the packaging of unwrapped foodstuffs,” says Peter Pühringer. “For example, they are used in the primary packaging of fish fingers. Other demanding applications can be found in the fields of life science, consumer goods and electronics. Our ESD robots are the go-to machines for packaging sensitive electronic products.”

Even so, there’s no doubt that cost will still be a factor for many SMEs. This is why some companies are offering practical solutions to enable them to implement automation gradually. “We recently introduced a leasing programme for cobots,” says Mark Gray. “Offering greater cost control and flexibility, the initiative allows users to benefit from automation without a capital investment.

“As previously mentioned, many considered robots to be exclusive to large corporations, mainly due to the huge price tag and space requirements. Cobots have revolutionized this thinking. Designed to be economic in space and finance, cobots have opened the door for manufacturers of all sizes to integrate into their offering.”

Data management: ‘Merging together robotics and AI’ The ever-more tangled webs of overlapping production methodologies – while they are highly enabling – in turn throw up another issue that needs to be addressed. They all create huge amounts of data which, if interpreted and managed correctly, can be a positive asset, resulting in increased efficiency and production improvements. But how can this be harnessed?

AI could be the key to this. Increasingly we are seeing more sophisticated machine learning algorithms being installed on packaging lines. These can improve themselves, or the equipment they are operating – ‘learning’ information directly from the data without having to rely on a pre-set program and without human intervention. Clearly, the more data that can be produced, the more the machine’s performance can be refined. For the packaging industry, | 20 | Packaging Europe

“Some medium-sized customers are reluctant to invest because they fear it is costly, unknown, needs a lot of maintenance and knowledge. But the total cost of ownership is the same in the end – and the alternative is being left behind.” this involves gathering and processing information from thousands of remote sensors to reduce downtime, speed up changeover times, reduce product defects or damage, and speed up production.

“The scenario is open,” says Paolo Cavallanti. “At present we can create a metaphysical structure combining robotics, IoT and Artificial Intelligence to efficiently acquire data from a production site and allow robots to work together with humans in perfect harmony. I think that merging together robotics and AI with big data stores can make the big differentiation. Big data is what is changing the manufacturing industry. In the near future, having those data available and released for more efficient production will be the challenge.”

Last but not least: The sustainability question It’s perhaps not the first consideration that leaps to mind when you think about robotics innovation, but as with every sector, robotics producers must form part of the global conversation around climate change. It’s unavoidable.

To give just one example of this, let’s consider two topics we have touched upon briefly already: data management and machine learning.

One way these could help contribute to a circular economy is to enable more efficient recycling processes. Through machine learning, robots used in recycling plants could learn to identify and separate materials automatically, reducing the risk of contamination and enabling a purer, more efficient recycling stream. Companies such as Tomra Sorting Recycling and ZenRobotics are just two of those in Europe looking to tie machine learning into automated sorting technologies.

Certainly, sustainability is something our interviewees factor in when talking about the different market needs their solutions can meet. “I am looking to use robotics in manufacturing to bring advantages in terms of energy efficiency,” says Paolo Cavallanti. “By reducing human errors you are not only increasing quality and lowering costs but also reducing waste from paper and plastics to anything that can be delivered as a package.”

They can also help manufacturers to reduce their overall energy consumption. “Our cobots are engineered to work with minimal supervision,” says Universal Robots’ Mark Gray. “This means they can continue working overnight, without requiring heat or lighting, when the human workforce has gone home. This ensures that companies can maximize their productivity while reducing their emissions.”

The above are just some of the complex challenges robotics can allow the packaging sector to address. No doubt there are more, and still more will arise. The key – as all our interviewees are certainly aware – is constant adaptation to meet the changing demands of the industry.

Packaging Europe | 21 |

THE START-UP INTERVIEW: IS BLOCKCHAIN A KEY TO THE CIRCULAR ECONOMY? We know that start-ups – in whatever sector they exist – are vital to the growth of an industry. They can provide that vital fresh perspective, developing new solutions to old problems. Netherlands-based Circularise is a case in point: a company that is utilizing emerging cryptographic and blockchain technologies to speed up the transition to a circular economy. In the first of an ongoing series of start-up focused articles, Victoria Hattersley spoke to Jordi de Vos, one of the company’s founders, about how this can be achieved and the particular challenges it has faced as a new entrant to the market.

H

ow can we achieve a circular economy? It’s a question we’ve asked again and again, in many contexts, and there is no single answer.

Perhaps a better question to ask might be, what are the barriers and how can each be overcome?

One of the biggest of these is the inability of each member along the supply chain to track the provenance of all materials, products and components from production to end-of-line. So many of the people we have spoken to over the years have talked about the importance of greater collaboration throughout the packaging value chain to reduce carbon footprints, cut waste and generally create the most sustainable solutions.

But maybe a possible solution to this is appearing on the horizon. Netherlands-based start-up Circularise is developing a protocol that utilizes a combination of blockchain, peer-to-peer technology and cryptographic techniques to build a decentralized information storage and communication platform. Along with project partners DOMO and Covestro it is working on the implementation of this solution in the plastics sector.

‘A lack of information’ Up to now, many may be more familiar with blockchain in relation to cryptocurrency, and if they associate it with the packaging industry at all it tends to be more in the context of anti-counterfeiting.

So in brief, for those (like myself, I freely add) who are not experts on the subject, blockchain is essentially a series of data records or ‘blocks’ managed by a cluster of computers or ‘nodes’. Crucially, they are not run by a central authority, which some would say makes this a far more democratic system – one that is open to building greater transparency along the supply chain. | 22 | Packaging Europe

But what makes Circularise’s protocol particularly significant? (After all, it is by no means the only one to employ blockchain.) In a (hyphenated) word: knowledge-sharing. The first main element of the Circularise blockchain solution involves the creation of a single digital replica of the customer’s real-world product or material, elements of which can be shared at their own discretion.

“Right now, if we look at the recycling loop, it’s not very effective because there’s a lack of information,” explains Jordi de Vos. “Imagine all the different kinds of packaging, particularly the different plastics and combinations of these, and how difficult this makes it for recyclers to market the most optimal choice.

If we can provide them with the information they need from somewhere in the supply chain it means they can ultimately get a more high-quality resource from their waste. After all, while there is a lot of plastic waste, plastic itself is not the real problem as it’s a great material that if used correctly would be better than a lot of the alternatives. But the problem is we’re not using it correctly now.”

And he argues that, while there is certainly a lot of work going on in the blockchain space, so far it seems there has been relatively little attention paid to its possible role in the plastics supply chain. Furthermore, when we do see this happening it is generally based on a single party or a consortium, whereas Circularise “tries to be for the industry as a whole.”

When it comes to plastics, he says the protocol could bring two big potential gains. At the recycling stage, companies would be able to make better choices and bring single-use plastics to multi-use without having to change their business model.

The second benefit is more practical. “For example, where I live we have a lot of garbage bins and it is difficult to know what to throw in each one, which could lead to contamination of the whole batch. The idea is that if you can

uniquely identify all the separate elements of the process we can automate the sorting part that the customer now does – so they’d just throw everything in the same bin and let the robot do it in the sorting facility.”

The security question – enter Zero Knowledge Proofs But there’s a caveat to all the potential benefits of the blockchain approach (when is there not?): when it comes to knowledge-sharing along the supply chain, there are always going to be security and confidentiality concerns. As it is still a relatively new technology, some companies are naturally wary of blockchain. Does it really, they would ask, provide the data security so vital to ensuring brand protection?

“I think the push for greater transparency has been out there for at least 20 years and is getting more and more important as public opinion changes,” says Mr de Vos. “But up to now we have never had the technology that would have allowed all these parties to work together without risking all their IP and sensitive information. For them, more transparency can be a risk but with the technology we are developing they can afford to do this.” If true, this is clearly exciting because it could be one of pieces of the complex puzzle that needs to be solved on the road to circularity.

This is where the second key element of the Circularise protocol comes into play: Zero Knowledge Proofs (ZKP). This is a cryptographic technique that allows the user to keep data secret (even from Circularise itself), while sharing certain parts of their solution. In this way they can pass on insights that may be vital to the efficiency of the supply chain without sharing everything.

To give an example of how this protocol might work: say a plastic contains some fire-retardant additives. Maybe the producer doesn’t want to share their entire recipe, for obvious security reasons, but it’s important for

Circularise is developing a protocol that utilizes a combination of blockchain, peer-to-peer technology and cryptographic techniques to build a decentralized information storage and communication platform.

Packaging Europe | 23 |

those further down the supply chain (sorters, recyclers, etc.) to know what this particular additive is so they can make the right end-of-line decision.

Using the ZKP is a way to share knowledge and prove the data is correct without disclosing it all. A win-win for everyone, perhaps?

“Yes, some might argue there are other ways to do this – encryption, for example – but assuming that technology keeps moving forward the way it has been there will be a time when that encryption can be broken. Let’s use the example of a soft drinks company which has a secret recipe – this information can’t be changed like a password because it’s fixed, which means it could be vulnerable if encrypted. In this scenario, it is better to use ZKP.”

Challenges, past and future All of this sounds promising, but of course we can only really judge its potential impact when full-scale commercialization takes place – something which is imminent. The first version of the Circularise protocol tailored specifically to the plastics industry has been developed, and was demonstrated at CES 2020 in Las Vegas in early January. To begin with it will be focused on other kinds of plastic than packaging, but the system is also prepared for that and the company expects it to be ready for mass market release at the end of 2020.

As with any new solution, there have been a plethora of challenges along the road to get it to this point; and it doesn’t end with commercialization – there will likely be more barriers to leap.

| 24 | Packaging Europe

“I guess the biggest challenge is the speed of corporates (or lack thereof!).

Plastics is a very traditional industry that is slow to make changes, whereas we as a start-up are compelled to move fast.

“I think another problem is that, when we’ve talked to stakeholders across the supply chain, many agree our protocol would add value for their customers, but wonder how they can capture it for themselves. There are still a lot of questions that need to be answered, but we’re getting there.”

Then, of course, there is always the spectre of legislative hurdles hovering over any disruptive innovation. “We don’t need more legislation within the plastics industry, although standardization would be beneficial. Up to now we have been completely supported by the EC, but I would rather see change happening from within the industry itself or we may start to become bogged down by rules.”

There are certainly suggestions that there’s a way to go before this technology is fully embraced. The recent CB Insights report, ‘Blockchain Trends in Review’, says that VC capital in the space has seriously declined in 2019: only $1.6 billion invested across 454 deals, down from the $4.1 billion invested the previous year.

But on the positive side, it seems there is increasing recognition of blockchain from within the industrial space – it is no longer reserved for the fintech sector. According to the Deloitte 2019 Global Blockchain Survey, 53% of senior executives surveyed said that blockchain would be in their top five strategic priorities – a 10-point increase over the previous year. And even the CB Insights

report does point out that recent corporate interest could be a ‘good omen’ for blockchain start-ups as the specific knowledge of blockchain can rarely be found in-house and will be needed as the space institutionalizes.

Mr de Vos confirms this: “To be honest, the parties we work with are capable of developing their own IT solutions like this in-house. But this brings with it a lot of internal risks, and then of course they are just building it for themselves which doesn’t help the industry as a whole. That’s why a start-up, standing between these parties and serving the entire supply chain, can be way more effective.”

“What it comes down to is the big corporates recognising that start-ups play a very specific role in their innovation challenges and the more they realise this the faster they can update themselves and still remain ahead of the curve.”

“While there is a lot of plastic waste, plastic itself is not the real problem as it’s a great material that if used correctly would be better than a lot of the alternatives. But the problem is we’re not using it correctly now.”

Jordi de Vos

‘Helping to shape the conversation’ On the subject of change from within the industry, let’s briefly go back to the above-mentioned challenge facing start-ups; specifically, the slow pace of corporates in long-established industries vs. the speed required for a start-up to get off the ground. Is this a common tension for new companies, regardless of their specialization?

“Yes, I would say so,” say Jordi de Vos. “Start-ups have to prove things quickly if they are to succeed. But even negotiating a contract with large players can take months, which for a company like ours is not good. That’s why as a start-up you are obliged to be selective about who you do business with in the beginning, which can be limiting.”

We’re also interested to know his views on the kind of support available to young companies seeking to have a disruptive effect. Is it sufficient, or does industry need new models to address this?

“We are basically seeing a big gap in funding and support, from ideas to execution to new venture partners. That’s what we describe as the ‘value gap’ for start-ups. Investors are coming in at later and later stages and want to

see more security and more recurring revenue before they commit, which is a problem. I hope that in the future corporates will come together and try to fill the gap in investment. If this happened, I think we would begin to see a lot more innovation happening.”

Fresh voices are increasingly helping to shape the conversation around sustainability. By nature, says Mr Vos, they can be more disruptive because they have less ‘baggage’ to carry and long-standing clients to please.

And blockchain is just one of the building blocks of a circular economy. In the coming months we will be hearing from a range of other start-ups from different segments of the packaging industry, to get a clearer picture of the specific challenges they face and how they feel innovation can be better nurtured.

One thing we are sure of: while the long-term experience of the big corporates is of course invaluable, getting a new, ‘younger’ perspective on the global environmental problems we all face is vital – whether that’s from industry, politics or grassroots activism. (As the glowing example of Greta Thunberg, for one, has shown us.)

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AMAZON: ADDRESSING THE CHALLENGES OF E-COMMERCE Kim Houchens is the director of customer packaging experience at Amazon. Her team is responsible for inventing packaging that is easy for customers to open, eliminates waste, and ensures products arrive on customer doorsteps undamaged. The company started driving innovation in sustainable packing over a decade ago, launching waste reduction initiatives like Frustration-Free Packaging. In this column, Kim shares how Amazon continues to address the specific challenges of e-commerce, including how her team uses machine learning to reduce packaging waste worldwide.

Kim Houchens

O

ur customers love the convenience of shopping at Amazon. Whether it’s a new espresso maker for their kitchen or a birthday gift for their favourite someone, no matter what our customers order online, the way it is packaged is key to a great experience. Even when we deliver the product undamaged, if the packaging is excessive, our customers tell us.

They call customer service and post on social media telling us they want minimal packaging and the ability to recycle all packaging waste.

E-commerce gives us the opportunity to package products differently.

Unlike traditional retail packaging, the products you buy online don’t require the romance packaging that is used for displaying products on store shelves.

Instead of attention-grabbing packaging, star ratings and reviews guide customers shopping online. The primary purpose of e-commerce packaging is to ensure customers’ products are protected all the way to their final destination. Amazon delivers more than 10 billion items a year. Given our scale, the potential to reduce packaging waste is significant.

Frustration-Free Packaging Our sustainable packaging initiatives include programmes like Frustration-Free Packaging (FFP). Created in 2008, FFP eliminates wrap-rage with packaging that is easy to open, lab-tested to verify its protective packaging design, and 100% recyclable. We have inspired thousands of | 26 | Packaging Europe

Example of simulation tools we have developed to predict packaging strength.

vendors around the globe to redesign their packaging as Frustration-Free.

There are more than two million products available through our FFP programmes, and participating brands experience better customer reviews and reduced damages.

This year we began incentivizing vendors across a diverse range of products, from kids’ toys to large consumer electronics to embrace designing packaging for FFP, including many items that are difficult to ship due to size or bulk. Philips, for example, was inspired by our FFP programme to reinvent their packaging.

The new Norelco OneBlade razor design now has 80% less packaging volume, is fully recyclable, and delights customers with print on the inside of the box which enhances the opening experience.

Vendors selling on Amazon – Proctor & Gamble, Henkel, and Mars Pet Food to name just a few – are certifying their products as FFP to achieve significant packaging material reduction. EU vendors have eliminated 120,000 US tons (around 109,000 tonnes) of packaging waste, the equivalent of 176 million boxes.

Driving down waste with machine learning In addition to the great work of vendors developing FFP packaging, Amazon continues to drive down the waste of our own branded packaging. This includes assigning smaller items to ship in lightweight, flexible packaging instead of boxes and developing computational modeling that optimizes the sizes and weights of the boxes we do use.

Flexible packaging (such as bags, mailers and folders) uses less material than similar sized boxes, weighs less, and conforms around the product, taking up less space than a box during shipping. That means flexible packaging makes it possible for us to pack more orders in each load, resulting in fewer trips, less fuel burned, and a smaller carbon footprint. As we work towards our vision of zero packaging, we must keep a high bar for customer experience, proactively identifying which products need more protection (like lightbulbs) than our best flexible packaging can provide.

To help us determine which products are suitable for flexible packaging at Amazon scale, we created machine learning (ML) algorithms using the Packaging Europe | 27 |

Amazon Web Services (AWS) Cloud infrastructure. Our solution matches each of the hundreds of millions of products you can order from Amazon with the most optimal packaging. The result is most smaller items now ship in flexibles. In cases where the protection of a box is needed, our algorithms help us continuously optimize box choices to fit our everchanging catalogue. These improvements help reduce volume per shipment, which means less unnecessary packaging and more efficient use of all forms of transportation.

We are using Machine Learning to discover a number of ways to eliminate waste including algorithms that determine which products can safely ship in a paper bag, predict which products might leak, and identify products that can be folded to fit into smaller packages. Our most impactful models allow us to determine which items don’t need any packaging at all – making it possible to save our most protective packaging for the products that really need it. Our machine learning tools have significantly

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changed our packaging mix over the past few years, reducing our use of boxes by 32%. To learn more about how we’re using machine learning on AWS to reduce packaging waste, please visit: https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=rHdpPHheY9M&t=29m43s.

‘Modeling conveyance and its impact’ Beyond machine learning, our team has also developed tools that simulate the rigours of the fulfillment process to conduct virtual product and package testing. With our modeling capability, we can simulate a package moving through our network, modeling conveyance and its impact.

We have modeled corrugated boxes to determine the minimum required material strength as well as the tape and seal necessary to withstand the fulfillment process to reduce waste across our network. When the number of boxes shipping is in the billions, making our boxes lighter weight yields significant waste reduction. We know these efforts must be made across

the industry to maximize impact, and our goal is to make these tools available to manufacturers globally so they can reinvent their own e-commerce packaging designs, leading to less waste and reduced damage. To date, we have reduced the weight of our outbound packaging by 27%, eliminating 810,000 US tons (735,000 tonnes) of packaging material worldwide.

That’s the equivalent of over 1.4 billion shipping boxes.

Each step we take to use less packaging throughout the supply chain reduces volume per shipment and results in a more efficient use of transportation and reduces carbon emissions across our network. Looking ahead, our targets are clear. Amazon and Global Optimism recently announced The Climate Pledge. Amazon cofounded and signed the Pledge, which calls on signatories to be net zero carbon across their businesses by 2040, ten years ahead of the Paris Agreement. The Pledge inspires us to think bigger and innovate faster on behalf of customers and the environment.

“I encourage all sustainable packaging designs and innovations for e-commerce to be submitted to the Sustainability Awards. I look forward to seeing the best of the best!”

Kim Houchens is a Sustainability Awards judge and will be speaking at the Sustainable Packaging Summit on 15–16 October in Lisbon, where this year’s winners will be announced.

Examples of simulation tools we have developed to the impact of fulfillment processes on packaging.

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DIGITAL VS PHYSICAL – WHICH ANTI-COUNTERFEITING TECHNOLOGY IS BEST? The global counterfeiting market is booming.

Unfortunately for organizations across the value chain, the implications of such practices can be severe – health-related incidents, revenue loss, lawsuits, and damage to a brand can all occur if parties fail to remain vigilant. Luckily though, sophisticated anti-counterfeiting measures are constantly being designed, refined, and implemented. Fin Slater talked to experts from across the anti-counterfeiting industry to explore the currently available options and look to the future of the fight against fakes.

| 30 | Packaging Europe

Holograms In constant use since the mid-20th century, holograms rank as one of the oldest anti-counterfeiting solutions on the market. But could this technology have some advantages over its digital counterparts?

Simplicity is key, argues Peter Franc, director of Security Division at IQ Structures. “Holographic technology isn’t dependent on anything else, like a database – you simply pick the package up and look at it,” he says. “This makes holograms the strongest element of visual protection.”

That’s not to say, however, that all holograms are created equal. “The right hologram needs to be applied. The most effective holograms use striking visual effects that can be easily identified and are extremely difficult to imitate.

The current market is flooded with cheap holograms that can be imitated by every more sophisticated student. Their protection strength is close to zero,” Franc continues.

And, due in part to the longevity of the technology, holograms have a varied range of applications. “We focus on products that are either expensive or critical for life, health and operation costs. This means drugs, food, beverages, tobacco products and important machine components,” concludes Franc.

Luminescent topcoats Another analogue solution to the problem of anti-counterfeiting is luminescent topcoating which, like holographic technology, prides itself on its ease of use.

As Carolina Svensson, product manager Brand Protection and Security at Avery Dennison says, “seal labels can be combined with luminescent topcoats, in any colour or with a custom brand logo. The product itself is invisible to the naked eye in natural daylight but reveals its fluorescent colour and pattern under UV light.” The solution is covert and customizable – any colour and logo is possible, reportedly making it hard for counterfeiters to copy.

This technology, Svensson says, is aimed at “securing items throughout the value chain, especially pharmaceuticals, electronics and luxury goods.”

In fact, Avery Dennison reports that “up to 60% of search engine results for medicines yield counterfeit drugs.”

According to Svensson, while consumers might willingly purchase counterfeit shoes, “the majority of consumers will not take the risk of deliberately purchasing a fake pharmaceutical product.” This leads counterfeiters to produce products “that are so similar to the originals that the consumers believe they are genuine.”

All of this, she continues, “creates a need for anti-counterfeit solutions can be easily authenticated by multiple parties (brand owners, customs officials, consumers) in the value chain.”

“Holographic technology isn’t dependent on anything else – you simply pick the package up and look at it.”

Packaging Europe | 31 |

“Blockchain’s source-to-consumer traceability allows it to allay fears about contamination and legitimacy.”

In addition to luminescent topcoats, Avery Dennison offers materials containing taggants, readable with IR-readers. In the company’s view, “taggants offer a higher level of security compared to luminescent topcoats because the readers are custom made and therefore only authorized parties can authenticate the goods.”

Blockchain While many industry professionals will have heard of blockchain technology, most of us can be forgiven for not knowing what it precisely is. Thankfully, this technology is not as complicated as it might at first appear to be. According to Clearmark Solutions, “blockchain is essentially a way of storing and sharing information across a network in an open, virtual digital space.”

In terms of anti-counterfeiting, blockchain’s primary asset is complete visibility. “All the information from across the value chain is linked cryptographically, which is a deterrent against attempts at falsification. The information stored can include timestamps, allowing full traceability from the source,” says Clearmark.

The meat & poultry and pharmaceutical industries are key markets for blockchain, the company continues, because blockchain’s “source-to-consumer traceability allows it to allay fears about contamination and legitimacy that have previously dogged both industries.” Clearmark argues these assets could help brands in these industries restore consumer confidence following a recent spate of food and pharmaceutical scandals. And, in light of recent legislation such as Natasha’s Law and the Falsified Medicines Directive, organiza| 32 | Packaging Europe

tions in many territories now have a greater interest in “accurately tracing their products down the supply chain”, an issue which blockchain’s inherent assets might be able to help with.

Track and trace (and more) Steve Tallant, Senior Director at Systech, describes track and trace as a technology that “captures and stores location information of products through its supply chain journey.” This data can then be interrogated for point-in-time verification, and pre- and post-delivery data analytics.

Rather than being a purely digital or physical solution, track and trace blends the two. As Tallant says: “the simplest method utilizes serialized 1D and 2D package barcodes that are scanned at physical locations along the supply chain. Some companies have deployed higher-tech electronic sensor tags that can automatically record location information without scanning.”

Systech argues that also delivering a unique authentication solution makes its product stand out from the crowd. “We can evaluate micro-variations in the printing of barcodes to derive a digital e-fingerprint for the item,” Tallant says.

“This means that Systech can individually identify each and every one of possibly millions of items with the same UPC code on the package,” he continues.

Much like Avery Dennison, Systech is keen to stress the practicality of its own technology. Products that use its solutions can be tracked and traced, as well as authenticated using a smartphone app in a move that, in Tallant’s view, essentially crowdsources the anti-counterfeiting process.

Track and trace products are primarily focused on sectors in which the health of the consumer can be at risk, such as the pharmaceutical industry.

However, Systech’s Brand Protection Suite, which includes these authentication capabilities, is also “actively marketed to cosmetics, wine, spirits, e-cigarettes, nutraceuticals, and other consumer products.”

What does the future hold?

Figures across the anti-counterfeiting industry agree that product counterfeiting will continue to grow over the coming years, and that futureproofing is a key way in which the industry can protect itself. Petr Franc argues that rather than asking if products can be counterfeited today, the industry should instead ask if products can be counterfeited in three years’ time. It is critical, he says, that protection producers continue to innovate in order to keep their technological advantage.

Looking ahead, it also shouldn’t be assumed that anti-counterfeiting measures are only suitable for high-value goods. Avery Dennison’s Carolina Svensson says that these solutions “will also start to be used on low-value consumers goods.”

Consumers themselves are also driving change in the supply chain.

According to Avery Dennison: “Consumers are becoming more interested in and critical of the origin of packaging, leading to a need for enhanced accountability.” And, in a trend that Steve Tallant calls ‘democratization’, the industry is increasingly giving consumers greater power to authenticate their own purchases independently and simply – through the use of readily available technology such as smartphones.

The question remains though: which solutions perform better – digital or physical? The answer is, perhaps, neither – might a combination of the two provide the ultimate security guarantee? Svensson certainly thinks so, arguing that a combination of physical solutions, such as labels and seals, with digital solutions like smart labels, QR, NFC, blockchain and RFID might be the future of anti-counterfeiting.

It’s clear then that while counterfeiting threats are evolving, anti-counterfeiting solutions – both digital and physical – are rising to meet these challenges.

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BRINGING PEOPLE, PROCESS AND TECHNOLOGY TOGETHER

A visit to the renowned Rockwell Automation fair in Chicago, US, wrapped up 2019 for Libby Munford with a valuable insight into the future of automation and software, experienced on a diverse show floor in terms of technological advancements and attendees alike.

Collaboration is key Susana Gonzalez, regional president EMEA, stressed the importance of digitalization, and its ability to bring people, process and technology together. She explained that a lot of companies are in the planning stage, every customer has a different path, and the Rockwell Automation Connected Enterprise consultancy launching in the EMEA is designed to help this process, alongside its first customer centre for The Connected Enterprise facility located in the technology centre of Karlsruhe, Germany, which has been operating for the past two years.

Sharing his perspectives onstage, Blake Moret, chairman and CEO of Rockwell Automation, announced new agreements and collaborations. Of note, he mentioned the acquisition of Emulate3D, an innovative engineering software developer whose products digitally simulate and emulate industrial automation systems. By using accurate simulation models to improve systems planning and decision-making, followed by emulation trials that test the control system before installation, Emulate3D’s software enables customers to virtually test machine and system designs before incurring manufacturing and automation costs and committing to a final design. He underlined the value of simplifying processes and reducing complexity – which he implies will sort the winners from the losers.

During his opening address, he also announced the signing of an agreement with Accenture. Rockwell Automation and Accenture’s Industry X.0 will team

“Many of our partners complement our portfolio – technologic advancement is not self-sustainable.” | 34 | Packaging Europe

up to develop a digital offering to help industrial clients move beyond existing manufacturing solutions to transform their entire connected enterprises.

The collaboration will enable clients to leverage the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and has already yielded, among other early-stage successes, a prototype for supply-chain management designed to deliver supplier cost optimization and an improved ability to track the exact movements of products.

Paulo Butti, EMEA industry and OEM sales director, shed light on Rockwell Automation’s clear collaboration aims. “We embrace and enable the concept of partnership, which is one of our strong foundation pillars. Many of our partners complement our portfolio – technologic advancement is not self-sustainable; our customers demand bigger integration. This is my seventh year attending the fair and the space and visibility of our partners has increased massively over the years.”

Different versions of the truth Last year, Rockwell Automation and PTC announced a strategic partnership, and Barry Johnson, VP software sales, discussed their comprehensive suite introduced for digital transformation in more detail on the show floor. In particular, PTC and Rockwell Automation have agreed to align their respective smart factory technologies and combine PTC’s award-winning ThingWorx® IoT, Kepware® industrial connectivity, and Vuforia® augmented reality (AR) platforms with Rockwell Automation’s best-in-class FactoryTalk® MES, FactoryTalk Analytics, and Industrial Automation platforms.

But what value does this have specifically for the packaging industry?

He says, “This partnership can be used to benefit packaging equipment and build a digital system across an enterprise; with strength in analytics its predictive models can be used to reduce downtime and access all the meaningful data of a customer’s processes.”

He stresses the importance of the contextualization of data and that there are often many different versions of ‘the truth’ when it comes to interpreting data.

“We can work across the enterprise and define standards of KPI’s, and the best Expressing surprise at how many companies still use paper manuals, he stresses it is important to leverage expertise from skilled workers, and that the biggest challenge in manufacturing is how to run the equipment to its best ability and to capture its knowledge.

CLEANING UP

AS

part of the fair, I was granted special access to the headquarters of one of Rockwell Automation’s clients, Method, owned by S C Johnson & Son. Inc. Founded in 2000, Method advocates premium planet-friendly and design-driven home, fabric and personal care products. Formulated with naturally derived, biodegradable ingredients, importance is also placed on the packaging and overall carbon emissions.

Kirk Jaglinski, director of engineering and technical services, Method, shares that the plant is located on a brownfield site and that he was attracted to the company by an opportunity not

only to do well, but to do good. He said that he wanted to follow the model of reusable engineering with Rockwell Automation, whereby you can ‘do more, with less’, and he wanted to ensure the technology they invested in was future-proof for the next 30 years.

Based in one of the only LEED platinum factories in the US, with cradle-to-cradle architecture, solar and wind turbines, it also has a strong ethos in efficient manufacturing. Steve Mulder, CPG industry manager, Rockwell Automation explains, “This is a company with a broad array of products, and a lot of the assembly and packaging was previously performed by hand before our involvement.”

Poised for the future The innovations stand at the fair gave access to Rockwell Automation’s forwardthinking solutions, giving a glimpse into where the company is making headway.

John Pritchard, global market development manager, Rockwell Automation, gave a tour and shared his insights into where technology is heading. These solutions are yet to be shared with the marketplace.

Moving forwards Earmarked to be launched in 2020, the FlexLink conveyor system, which John Pritchard explains is conventionally beneficial for elevation changes and cost effective over long distances, can now be integrated with the Rockwell Automation MagneMotion independent cart moving technology. Before, clients had to choose between one system or the other, but now this hybrid solution means they can benefit from the advantages of both systems.

Together, they create a highly flexible solution that can quickly process and transport a wide variety of products. Where ultimate flexibility of routing and position control is required, products can be transported by the MagneMotion system. When products need to be sent over longer distances or require elevation changes, they’re handed off to the FlexLink system and quickly transported across a production facility.

Digital engineering Digital twins transform how workers interact with machines. Today, controls testing typically only happens after machines are physically built and commissioned in a plant. This often leads to last-minute modifications that can be costly and result in delayed start-ups. With simulation software, you can conduct controls testing in a digital world, before you build anything. The software can show how machines will perform, product will flow and workers will interact with them. This can help OEMs and end users optimize machine and plant designs in the digital world before committing to the final physical solution.

John Pritchard spotlights how their recent partnership with Emulate3D has flourished in the development of simulating processes and machinery ahead of commissioning. For example, by integrating Fanuc’s RoboGuide with Emulate3D software (demonstrated on a Fanuc robot), Fanuc can digitally train and test a robot.

Left: Paulo Butti, Right: Susana Gonzalez

Spotlighting packaging, Method blow-moulds bottles at the facility to cut out the transportation of empty packaging. Its 2-in-1 dish & hand soap is packaged in a bottle with a blend of recovered ocean plastic and PCR plastic. All of its 1-PET plastic bottles are made from 100% PCR, and its easy-to-use refill pouches for hand wash, laundry detergent and dish soap offer about 80% water, energy and plastic savings compared to using a bottle.

He says, “You can teach it moves and sequences in the digital environment.

And rather than testing individual robots in isolation, you can test and optimize how they perform together on a production line. You can witness how pick and place will work in action for example and see how it works in a factory layout and environment. The placement of a robot in a production line could potentially have errors in reality, such as it might knock something – this application gives the ability to catch design flaws early on in the design process before commissioning.” It also has the potential to be used as a training tool for robot operators, to understand its capabilities.

The digital sweet spot Rockwell Automation has already revolutionized the design and build of trackbased industrial motion control for packaging and materials handling, with iTRAK® which combines linear and rotary motion.

With an independent cart digital twin, you can quickly build track for iTRAK and can simulate running in fully digital environment. John Pritchard explains, “This helps to figure out the ‘sweet spot’ of number of carriages for ideal automation. It is also handy for fault handling and can check controls virtually before commissioning.”

The pulse of the future was clear to see from the eager youth on the show floor, and with a noticeable and encouraging representation of female engineers – even children rose to the ‘You Make it’ challenge hosted at the event, in which Rockwell Automation called on the next generation of innovators, builders and makers to dream big.

Packaging Europe | 35 |

CONSTANTIA INTERVIEW: ADDRESSING THE CIRCULARITY CHALLENGE Tim Sykes talks to Alexander Baumgartner, CEO of Constantia Flexibles, to hear his frank thoughts about how the industry can move forward in the most sustainable manner.

| 36 | Packaging Europe

Alexander Baumgartner

TS: In the flexibles business, there’s always this dichotomy between the focus on packaging waste that we’re seeing very fiercely across Europe and, on the other hand, the resource efficiency and the low carbon footprints that it gives rise to. Is the current focus on plastic waste maybe created a little bit unfairly by the wider society when you consider the environmental footprint you actually have as a company?

AB: That’s a very valid question and not an easy one to answer. Let me start with how I see the overall picture and why I have some sympathy with public opinion as it is today. If you drive up and down the road in countries like India, for example, you will see a lot of trash left and right of the road. If you look a little bit closer, you will not see any paper. You will not see any glass. But you will see a lot of plastics. What’s the difference between plastic and all the other packaging materials in a country like India? It’s value. There’s value in a used tin can. There’s value in an old newspaper, value in a glass bottle that has been thrown away. But there is no value in a plastic bag or a pouch. This is a fundamental problem. The other materials and industries all developed a recycling stream and the basis of a circular economy but we didn’t. That’s a mistake of the plastics industry because we focused on developing our super-cool technical capabilities, like high-tech 13-layer substrates that adding various properties. We ended up with this high-tech multilayer plastic product which gave perfect UV barriers, moisture barriers, perfect oxygen barriers, meeting the needs of the customer because product then lasts longer. We increased shelf life by days, weeks, even months in some cases. But at the same time I think we did something bad, because the product only had one life. In this respect the other materials have done a better job at ensuring whatever they develop is recyclable.

So as an industry, we need to rethink the way we develop products and try to develop monomaterial solutions, which can be detected in sorting systems, and recycled using existing waste streams. But how do we add

the required protective barrier properties in mono-layer structures? To be very black and white, those companies that solve this problem will be the winners in our industry.

TS: We’ve seen some eye-catching announcements by some of your large competitors in terms of high barrier monomaterial solutions. Speaking of the industry as a whole and this great collective task, can you quantify how far we’ve progressed down that road already?

AB: It’s very difficult to quantify this because I don’t know where the end of the journey is. I know where we need to go and I know everybody is working on the same thing but, to use a racing analogy, we don’t know exactly know where the finishing line is. How far is the industry on a scale to from zero to 100? Maybe we are between 10 and 20. We are at the very beginning. The race has just started.

It’s important to view this in a bigger picture, not just confined to Europe.

For instance, I have not seen a lot of players who are working in this direction in the US. TS: …and there are converters that have brought out new generation monofilms for Europe but are still exclusively selling their multimaterial versions in North America.

AB: Relatively speaking, recycling is still a non-issue in the US market. We may find that pressure will come not from politics, but the Walmarts of this world putting price pressure on the brand owners. As for the global brand owners like Nestlé or Unilever, you cannot play the role of a green business, look after the environment in Asia, in Europe and do all the environmentally harmful things in the US, because this will backfire. So those guys need to have a global approach when it comes to the impact of their packaging and products.

Packaging Europe | 37 |

TS: In the context of the so-called war on plastics and the very justified reasons for the concerns people have about plastic waste, there are voices across society and in our industry who would take issue with the idea that the solution is to move towards monomaterials and a circular economy in flexible plastics, but rather to adopt alternatives such as renewable materials, paper-based alternatives or bioplastics. How do you view the threat and perhaps the opportunities represented by these alternatives?

AB: Let me start with biodegradables. It’s probably the biggest threat, because it’s the biggest bullshit I’ve ever heard. If you look at the biodegradable reality, it comes down to industry vs household standards. When you pick your vegetables or your fruits and you put them in the bag, these bags are nearly all industrial biodegradable, not household, which means that for biodegradation they need to be subjected to a specific humidity level for at least 120 days in an industrial facility.

Here in Austria, for example, the waste collection companies or the state waste collecting organization forces the retailers to separate these biodegradable bags whenever they trash them, because the product will deteriorate very soon leaving smaller and bigger microplastic pieces all over the place, which actually hurts the recycling stream and shuts down the valves. So as a consumer, you think you’re buying something biodegradable but the reality is it’s incinerated because it’s so bad for the recycling stream. At this point, you have done nothing good for the environment.

Then we come to the raw materials: these are not available in sufficient quantities so in order to produce enough sugar cane, say, you have to cut down trees. In other words, you need to use spaces which are not currently available in the world today. What I fear is that one day the consumer will find out he or she has been cheated, and this will backfire on the industry.

Coming back to the other part of your question: the alternative materials. Of course you have the other materials rushing to fill the plastics gap saying, ‘I’m so environmentally friendly because I come from trees; you can recycle me so many, many times and I will be back in the recycling stream over and over again’. And of course the paper manufacturers are now doing an excellent job of putting these KPIs on the radar, which works for them because plastic bashing is now the name of the game. But that is only one part of the story. We all know that if you look at the other criteria, such as CO2 emissions, then paper doesn’t look so great and glass is even worse. Plastic, on the other hand, is better by this metric.

Of course, there are cases where paper packaging is the right format – I am definitely not here to say that everything should be made from plastic.

To say that would be good for my business, but I speak as a father, and as a citizen of this planet. There is space for aluminium, there is space for glass, there is space for paper – and there is space for plastic, too. But the plastic industry is now learning the hard way that we need to catch up with re-using our raw materials multiple times and not just once.

TS: How does all of this translate to Constantia’s investment strategies and R&D?

AB: I never anticipated the magnitude of the media discussion we’re having today. But actually, we already started three years ago in our R&D department by asking: what are the monomaterial solutions of tomorrow? At that time the market wasn’t very interested in that. At that time we focused maybe 50% on monomaterials, and that has risen to almost 100% in the last 12 months.

We are, I would say, on the lucky side because our turnover is almost 50/50 aluminium and plastic film, and aluminium is actually a very easily recyclable material. When it is not layered with too many other barrier materials it is very | 38 | Packaging Europe

easy to collect, very easy to detect, and through our suppliers of aluminium very easy to put back in the production stream. The focus here is on reducing the non-aluminium layers to ensure they stay below the thresholds for recycling. In this respect, having our own rolling mill is a helpful resource in developing new products.

On the plastics side, our focus is on polyethylene based monomaterials. Why PE? First, because it has an existing recycling stream with lots of applications; and secondly, sealability is high. PE will always work in our customers’ filling machines because it seals more easily than PP, for example. One challenge compared with PP films is that glossiness isn’t as good, more of a matte finish, but with printing technology developing in parallel perhaps we’ll reach a solution there as well.

In our labs in Germany and India we have developed a new mono PE barrier family called EcoLam, whose barrier properties come very close to multimaterial equivalents. There are three grades – EcoLam, EcoLamPlus and EcoLamHighPlus – which contain a functional barrier that combines ethylene vinyl alcohol (EVOH) and aluminium metallization, representing less than 2% of the total film weight.

This is not a solution we could retrofit to an existing machine, but rather a technology we had to build from scratch. So we invested in and recently opened a new proprietary line in India on a greenfield site. We’ve been going through tests and approvals on shelf life, logistics etc. with big brand owners in India and outside to get the product qualified. So far, I can tell you the feedback has been super positive.

Now we have this solution in India. Your next question will probably be, ‘Do you have any plans to duplicate it somewhere else?’ Yes, we do. But we really wanted to make sure that technically we have the process and performance perfectly in order before we move to Europe. So within the next three to six months, we will decide on doubling / tripling / quadrupling up that line.

TS: Design for recycling is something that a business like Constantia can address unilaterally to some degree, but you also need to ensure there’s an infrastructure for collection, separation and economically viable demand for the PCR that comes out of it. Everyone agrees that collaboration across the industry is an important part of that – and I’m aware that Constantia is a member of CEFLEX. Could you comment on the progress and barriers you’re seeing in the wider effort to construct a circular economy in flexibles?

AB: I think there are two areas where we still need to fill the gaps. One is the recycling stream itself: we definitely need the public sector to help more. We’ve seen it in India, when Modi announced Clean India and announced recycling targets for the country, which moved the needle a lot.

We need that in other countries in the world, including Europe, and the discussion is heading in the right direction. But we now need decisions and clarity in order to really make this recycling stream an economically sustainable business. Otherwise it will not survive. And therefore, these platforms such as CEFLEX are super important in setting up the right framework.

The other area is FMCG. I believe all producers should challenge their specifications because products may be over-specified simply because it can be done.

The question we should ask ourselves is whether we really need to pack, for instance, chocolate powder in a pouch which has a due date of 18–24 months.

Of course, we can develop a barrier that protects chocolate power for that long but perhaps that product only stays there for six months before it’s used. How much did we over-engineer and over-specify because it was possible and it made our life easier? And how much does the consumer really need it? The more specification gets closer to reality, the easier it becomes to develop monomaterials, which by definition do not need to reach the exact same super-high properties as the multilayer products we developed in the past. As an industry, we need to compromise somewhere.

Packaging Europe | 39 |

RESEARCHING THE PRESSING PACKAGING ISSUES OF TODAY In times where packaging challenges are becoming ever more complex, a cooperative, multi-faceted approach to finding new solutions is emerging as a promising way forward. Prof. Dr Andrea Büttner, the recently appointed director of Fraunhofer Institute for Process Engineering and Packaging IVV, talks to us about her out of the box approach to the issue.

F

raunhofer IVV, located in Freising in Germany, is a research institute that works in the field of food, packaging, processing machinery, product performance, recycling and the environment. The institute describes its main activities as transferring research into practical applications, and it is active in the development of new, alternative raw materials and manufacturing and production processes to minimize the use of energy and resources.

Another focus is the safeguarding, analysis, and optimization of the sensory, techno-functional and biological-chemical qualities of products along the process chain, from the raw materials to the final products.

Joined-up thinking Dr Büttner describes herself as a ‘pathological networker’, and is looking forward to bringing together different disciplines and industry partners.

“This is very dear to my heart. I’m a trained food chemist, a very interdisciplinary subject, as it deals not just with food chemistry, but also biology and microbiology of foods, as well as packaging materials and Packaging Europe | 41 |

consumer goods that people deal with on a daily basis. This gives me a wide view on food technology procedures, technologies and laws. I enjoy bringing everything together. Fraunhofer IVV, with its food and packaging focus, is the perfect place for this.”

She emphasizes that it is almost impossible to look at the issues concerning food and packaging in isolation.

“Fraunhofer IVV research starts at the beginning, from raw materials to processing steps to the final product and beyond. Researchers think about what happens during distribution and retail and how the consumer stores the product at home. Of course, closing the loop is an important topic. These are very complex questions that interlink.”

Questioning the status quo The big packaging sustainability debate circles around the topic of plastic waste, the carbon footprint and food waste. The subject is multi-faceted, and addressing one issue can come of the cost of causing a problem elsewhere.

In order to avoid this, Dr Büttner calls for a radical shake-up of how packaging is designed.

“We need different packaging concepts for different types of foods, tailormade for the respective products and their life cycles, storage duration and distribution channels. We have to critically reflect and question products that have been developed over time. It is a particular challenge to look at individual cases, products and life cycles and question solutions that were developed in the past.”

Packaging does not only have the purpose of protecting food, but has many other functions, such as working as an advertising medium to attract | 42 | Packaging Europe

attention on the shelf. Dr Büttner thinks questioning this approach is a good starting point for more sustainable packaging.

“How much advertising messaging, how much of a sales incentive does actually need to go into the packaging? How about not putting so much into the presentation of the product? Decorative elements such as colours, prints etc. attract the consumer, but cause major challenges for example when it comes to recycling.”

She explains that ideally, a pack would be designed for a specific product in a proactive way, taking into account distribution, presentation and storage in the consumer’s home.

“The supermarket of the future will likely look completely different. Will there be different pack forms, tailor made individual solutions for individual customers? We live in times where a lot is happening with regards to decentralized diagnostics and monitoring, also in the context of digitalization and decentralization. There will be new strategies to monitor quality across different steps,

“Currently consumers perceive packaging often as bad and evil. It is important that consumers see that packaging is a valuable material that is worth taking care of.”

Prof. Dr Andrea Büttner

“We need different packaging concepts for different types of foods, tailormade for the respective products and their life cycles, storage duration and distribution channels.”

maybe even when the product is at the consumer’s house, and damage will be recognized more quickly. This is also an important topic for me with regards to proactive consumer and food protection.”

The waste collection challenge Dr Büttner goes on to highlight waste collection for recycling as an area that may need some extra thought.

“How are materials collected, and how can they be introduced into a closed loop? How can we make consumers motivated and well-informed, so they make an effort to pre-sort waste?”

She sees education and giving higher acceptance and value to packaging as key.

“Currently consumers perceive packaging often as bad and evil. It is important that consumers see that packaging is a valuable material that is worth taking care of. It is our duty at Fraunhofer IVV to educate the public.”

Sealing challenges Fraunhofer IVV works on a wide range of projects, and Dr Büttner highlights one that addresses some of the challenges of packaging materials that contain recycled materials. The institute recently developed a sensor based sealing tool for inline process controls for packaging machines.

“When sealing processes take place in packaging, especially those packs containing a higher percentage of recyclate, strict checks are necessary. The tool enables to filter out packs that haven’t been sealed to a high standard directly in the machine.”

The use of recyclate brings technological challenges with it as they may work differently on packaging machines.

“How can trays and films with recyclate be processed? New technologies working well with the new materials are needed. There are different solution approaches and technological advances, but we have not managed to bring all of this together as compact or combined solution. Achieving this is an exciting challenge I’m very much looking forward to working in,” Dr Büttner says.

With recycled materials, decontamination can be a major challenge. With the current collection methods and processes, there are many sources that enable contaminations to enter the recycling streams, which have to be eliminated with great effort.”

Fraunhofer IVV is active in the area of developing diagnostic tools and sensor systems that recognise deviations from the norms in materials, a challenging field, as Dr Büttner explains.

“Sometimes certain recurring contamination types are known. These can be addressed with targeted sensors, analytical and diagnostic tools, but sometimes contaminations do not fit the brief. This is where intelligent sensor systems are needed, and checks need to take place whether a new material is fit to use in packaging or not.”

A smelly problem Seemingly simple problems such as smell can cause a challenge, as Dr Büttner explains.

“Plastics are used to package food, as well as products with strong smells, such as washing powders. Lots of different odours seep into the plastics – getting rid of those smells is a major challenge. This leads to the question: should we pre-sort certain types of packaging, or design them differently in the first place? The scent doesn’t necessarily have to be added into the washing powder and then be flushed away down the drain. Maybe there is a different way of achieving the same result?”

Design for recycling Finding solutions for the issue of recyclability and keeping food safe is another pressing issue.

“For years, companies have worked with multilayer models in order to achieve perfect barrier properties, but at times these are not easily recyclable. With a view to recycling, we need to develop new concepts, such as multilayer products that can be delaminated.”

Dr. Büttner sees a complementary role for chemical recycling. “With current collection methods and the way packs are designed I see no way around the use of chemical recycling, simply for decontamination reasons. But in some cases, mechanical recycling can work just as well. Recycling for PET bottles, for example, has been very successful as a closed system. Ideal might be, in any case, combinations of sorting and purification technologies…guided by intelligent monitoring and control” Keeping food safe should remain a key factor, as Dr Büttner points out in conclusion.

“I see a danger that this very strong desire, also in politics, to want a lot really quickly leads to hastily put together pseudo solutions that end up making the whole issue a lot more difficult, for example when hastily jumping into bio-based and renewable raw material applications that have not undergone a thorough quality check. It is important to keep an eye on functionality and safety. If they create more food waste, then nothing is gained.”

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TALKING SUSTAINABILITY AND EFFICIENCY WITH SIDEL Libby Munford caught up with Sidel’s recently appointed CEO, Monica Gimre, to find out how she sees the company addressing some of the industry’s biggest challenges in the coming years.

Monica Gimre

LM: Congratulations on your new position! Could you please let me know what enticed you to work for the company in terms of its outlook and standing on the market?

MG: Well, I worked in the food and beverage industry all my life, first with Alfa Laval, then Tetra Pak and now Sidel. I worked in many different functions ranging from R&D and engineering to supply management and services; I worked as an MD for Market Operations and then, until recently as executive vice-president for Tetra Pak Processing. So, I’ve had a lot of different opportunities in my professional life and every job has had its own highlights. Outstanding among them is surely my experience as an MD in Market Operations, being out in the market with the customers and their everyday problems. This made priorities very clear and it made me understand how our whole organization needs to be working together to make sure we satisfy our customers, which is something I, of course, have taken with me into my new position at Sidel.

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For the future, I clearly see us continuing to strengthen our leadership in aseptic PET applications, as well as further progressing with our Services portfolio development. We are also reviewing how our ‘End to End’ packaging offering will adapt and best contribute to the circular economy. These steps are critical if we want to fulfil the promise we make to our customers every day: Performance through Understanding.

LM: What can we expect to see from Sidel and your focus over the next few years?

MG: Our entire industry stands at a turning point right now. It is clear that everyone in the packaging business – including Sidel – needs to evolve, not only in terms of its approach to sustainability, but also in terms of flexibility and digital competences to better serve our customers’ production lines.

LM: What are the main trends you see influencing the marketplace, and can you tell me how Sidel participates in the hot topic within packaging – sustainability?

MG: There are a couple of trends that we are witnessing throughout various markets: for example, healthy, ‘better-for-you’ beverages and foods are gaining real traction with consumers nearly everywhere. Together with a clear search for personalized nutrition, this helps push all-natural products without any added sugars and preservatives, such as coconut water, Aloe Vera drinks, almond milk, while it also drives product innovations.

This development is leading to an increasing format and recipe diversification, especially in the liquid dairy products (LDP) and juices, nectars, soft drinks, isotonics and teas (JNSDIT) categories, leading to many business opportunities around aseptic bottling. In fact, preservatives-free beverages and a widening portfolio call for absolutely safe, easy to operate, cost-effective and flexible aseptic solutions.

Additionally, sustainable packaging is a clear priority for our planet. Whenever we develop new solutions at Sidel, we primarily focus on design for recycling. At the same time, there is a lot of innovation happening in other fields of packaging right now: we are seeing sensory and smart or intelligent packaging, expanding the channels a brand can use to engage with its target consumers. With such

smart packaging, producers are also able to track their production, stocks and logistics; know when each unit is or must be produced, when it is purchased, when it is consumed, or when it reaches its end of life. Therefore, intelligent packaging has a future – but without any compromise on the primary function of the container: protecting the product inside as well as the environment.

As far as the image of plastics and especially PET is concerned, not least when it comes to sustainability, Sidel has long been collaborating with different leading industry players and associations to continuously promote the unique properties of PET packaging and to develop designs that are always reducing the impact on the environment and increasing recycled content.

For example, Sidel signed the New Plastics Economy Global Commitment.

On this note, let me tell you something else. The consumption of packaged beverages alone shows a continuous growth trend at 2.5% per annum globally and at 1.3% per annum in Europe. As you might know, approximately 37% of all beverage volume is packaged in PET, thanks to its unique properties in terms of food safety, convenience, design flexibility, transparency and affordability. On top of that, PET is the only plastic packaging material that can be recycled bottle-to-bottle. This is why the expected growth will be mainly captured by recycled PET: PET can be brought back into the value chain as a valuable resource.

LM: Can you also spotlight the upcoming challenges for drinks production, and how Sidel is providing solutions?

MG: The entire liquid packaging industry is taking a more holistic approach today. Starting with packaging, market and industry experts help design and manufacture a complete line solution that looks not only at ramping-up performance but that is able to adapt over time to new customer needs.

Technological advancements are making production lines more sophisticated and line automation is expanding performance possibilities. All of that is coupled with a constant pursuit for more productivity and flexibility.

The current development of line monitoring systems and digitalization will allow us to better serve our customers in that respect.

Talking challenges, it would be naive not to recognise that we are living in an era when plastics is perceived as a contributor to pollution and PET bottles can be found in marine litter. Note that PET represents only 5% of the global Packaging Europe | 45 |

plastic production. Despite the fact that PET is the best packaging material in terms of environmental impact, we acknowledge that better management of waste is a key success factor for a true circular economy of plastics.

Our commitment to sustainable packaging at Sidel is underpinned by three pillars. First, we are optimizing current packaging with our RightWeight™ program to ensure that the package is minimized but still maintains its technical properties and the high consumer appeal. Secondly, we lead the refillable PET segment, with a worldwide reputation in this market. Most importantly, we are designing to recycle, for instance, by working with our customers to increase the recycled content in their packages.

We not only consider the primary packaging but also look at packaging and equipment with a 360° perspective. Sidel’s ‘End to End’ packaging approach aims at offering a consolidated packaging solution encompassing primary, secondary and tertiary packaging and the best environmental impact of the complete production line.

LM: How important is high performance, accuracy, and flexibility in the bottling process, and what focus does Sidel place on offering aseptic packaging technologies that guarantee brand integrity and hygiene?

MG: As mentioned above, today, food and beverage manufacturers need greater performance to match the overall rising demand for their products, while at the same time guaranteeing absolute food safety, minimizing Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) and preparing for future production needs. Numerous container sizes and recipes on the market call for higher flexibility, requiring – for instance – minimal changeover times, the possibility to handle both still and carbonated, as well as hot-, ambient- and cold-filled beverages. All of that while lowering energy, water, chemicals and raw material consumption.

Talking filling technologies, our latest solutions such as EvoFILL Can and EvoFILL Glass are exactly designed with today’ manufacturers’ requirements in mind, with special focus on greater performance, absolute product quality, and expanded flexibility.

Last but not least, aseptic PET packaging is experiencing significant growth due to a number of different factors that we touched upon above. At Sidel, we are addressing this set of applications as one of our key business areas.

Sales of our patented Aseptic Combi Predis™ solution – enabling aseptic PET

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bottling with dry preform sterilization – have been continuously growing in the past years: now we count on more than 180 references installed globally. This success represents the results of many initiatives we implemented in this field.

For instance, we recently inaugurated new aseptic laboratories, both in China at our Beijing plant, and in Italy at our Parma site.

A clear proof point of Sidel’s leadership in aseptic applications is the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval received by the company in 2017 for its Aseptic Combi Predis blow fill seal filler. This made the solution the world’s first aseptic PET filling equipment with dry preform sterilization validated for low acid manufacturing and commercial distribution in the US market. The Aseptic Combi Predis differs from former aseptic bottling technologies because the PET package sterilization takes place at the preform stage rather than during the bottling phase. This contributes to production simplicity, because a line with a small sterile zone and minimum critical factors is managed more safely, easily and effectively. Additionally, the solution marks an important step towards a sustainable production because it does not require any water and uses only a minimal amount of chemicals: since its launch, it helped save 10 billion litres of water while decontaminating 60 billion bottles. The dry preform sterilization also allows unlimited lightweighting opportunities and eliminates the constraints related to the bottle shape’s complexity.

LM: In turn, can you tell me about the challenges Sidel faces providing solutions for a wide span of the beverage market – from premium drinks, to water, dairy products and alcoholic beverages?

MG: You are absolutely right, Sidel offers a wide range of stand-alone, complete line and Services solutions which are addressing all categories of the beverage industry in PET, can, glass and other materials. I think that it’s best to refer to our customers about the advantages they gained by partnering with us. Niagara Bottling LLC, an industry-leading private label bottled water supplier, upgraded their Salt Lake City facility with a Sidel complete PET line integrating two Super Combis. By doing that, they benefitted from massive OEE (Overall Equipment Effectiveness) improvements, which are worth about 2 million cases per year of extra productivity according to their estimations.

In terms of sensitive drinks, including dairy products, as well as alternatives to dairies, juices, nectars, teas and isotonics, Jin Mai Lang, one of

the biggest Chinese beverage and food manufacturers, recently invested in five Sidel complete aseptic PET lines, both integrating Tetra Pak Processing System technologies and our Aseptic Combi Predis. With a production output of 60,000 bottles per hour, they are the world’s fastest aseptic PET line with dry preform decontamination for low acid products.

LM: How can automation and connectivity in production facilities help address key issues in the industry, such as aseptic production and sustainability? Does connectivity and industry 4.0 play a part in your solutions?

MG: In the past, the goal of most manufacturers was to achieve high volume performance with high efficiency, with few products. When changes were required, the switch of the set-up to meet these new needs generated long periods of downtime, or could result in additional pieces of equipment being added to the line. Format changes generated great efficiency issues. Today’s challenge is to reverse this trend. By combining high versatility with efficiency we can help our customers meet end users’ demands for greater product differentiation.

Sidel’s own unique program – Agility™ 4.0 – intends to help players in the beverage as well as food, home and personal care sectors shift from mass production to mass customization via the use of smart solutions (machines with built-in intelligence, robotics and cobotics), digital connectivity and simulation tools. Through improved understanding, we are able to enhance line performance and bring to life manufacturing plants that are responsive, flexible and connected – in one word: agile.

Our Agility 4.0 program is based on five pillars: the Smart Factory, grouping cobots, intelligent kinematics and clever features embedded in our equipment, offering self-adjusting, predicting, alerting and aided guidance capabilities; the Virtual Factory, in which we use the advantages of Virtual Reality to simulate and test operations in a production plant before execution as well as to provide maintenance support from remote. Also, the Connected Factory, by which we optimize performance and predict maintenance through data sourced by connecting and integrating equipment on a plant; the Sustainable Factory, designed to reduce energy, water and waste. Finally, the Extended Factory enables on-demand production and late personalization.

One of our advances in this area is our single smart solution, the Sidel Super Combi. It combines intelligent automation with innovative technologies of connected machines and data-analytics management, leading to improved production and maintenance services. The Super Combi also provides realtime access to the Sidel Big Data repository – where customer data is safely held – to refine its own prediction algorithms but also to provide on-time alerts to our customers.

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ON SECOND THOUGHTS...

TURNING WASTE INTO CURRENCY: REGENERATIVE BUSINESS IN ACTION David Katz, CEO and founder of Plastic Bank – a social enterprise which seeks to reveal the value in plastic waste – gives his view on what progress really looks like when it comes to dealing with the problem of ocean plastic.

T

oday, it is no longer enough to be sustainable. We are past the point of when doing ‘less bad’ counts for progress. We need to boldly step forward and be regenerative. We must leave nature and society healthier, better off, and more resilient than we found it. This means we need to take responsibility for our plastic use; it is not enough to clean the plastic out of our oceans.

Plastic is ubiquitous in our society. It is functional and convenient, but has long-term consequences for our wellbeing and the future health of the planet. Over 7 billion tons of plastics are already in our landfills and oceans and we continue to produce 350 million tons every year. We are dumping the equivalent of one garbage truck of plastic into our oceans every minute. This plastic is choking waterways, invading animal habitats, and negatively impacting human health. We have been producing without accountability for too long.

At Plastic Bank, we have created a root cause solution to stopping ocean plastic. We are turning off the tap and stopping the flow of plastic waste altogether. We have changed the paradigm; rather than viewing postconsumer plastic as ‘waste’, we see it as a valuable resource. We capture plastic before it enters our waterways and oceans, and reintroduce it back into the supply chain as a feedstock.

Plastic Bank is revealing the value in plastic by paying collectors a bonus on top of the market price for recycled plastic. By enabling the exchange of all kinds of plastic for currency and other rewards, we effectively monetize plastic waste, making plastic too valuable to discard in the first place.

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Plastic Bank is regeneration in action. By stopping the flow of plastic, we improve the ocean’s ability to restore and renew. Plastic Bank’s ecosystems harmonize and streamline existing informal recycling communities, creating a framework for our collectors and the environment to thrive together.

‘Revealing the value in plastic’ Meet Lise Nassisse, a mother of seven, a 2010 earthquake widow, and a star collector for the Plastic Bank in Haiti. Lise’s work as a Collector for Plastic Bank provides a reliable income that she uses to pay for food, rent, and school tuition. Through her work with Plastic Bank, Lise has agency.

Plastic Bank does much more than offer recycled plastic; we offer Social Plastic®. Plastic Bank ecosystems are specifically designed to dignify recycling. Plastic becomes a conduit for economic growth in vulnerable regions that are most affected by pollution. Plastic Bank transfers the value back into collector communities, creating a positive social impact. By revealing the value in plastic, we are revealing the value in everyone involved.

The brands that partner with Plastic Bank are driven by much more than profit; they are driven by a social purpose. Plastic Bank’s brand partners, like Henkel AG and SC Johnson, recognize the value of Social Plastic®, and how using it in their supply chains is an opportunity to reveal the value in their respective businesses.

My work with Plastic Bank is challenging. I will be the first to say I don’t have all of the answers. We are in a constant state of becoming.

We are putting in the work to become who we need to be to solve the ocean plastic problem. We must gather together as a community to tackle the challenges at hand. Building a regenerative economy will take more than one person, one organization, or one company – it requires collective action.