How does the packaging industry rise to the challenge of sustainability?
We saw from the COP26 climate change summit that if the world is to limit global warming to 1.5°C or less by the end of the century, we all need to step up our efforts.
The packaging industry takes the challenge of climate change very seriously. Sidel’s customers, which include well-known global brands and companies, set ambitious targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, not only for themselves but also for their entire supply chain.
We know that sustainable development relies on cooperation, especially when you consider that analysts expect to see a 2.6% increase in sales of consumer packaged goods by 2025 – that’s a another 423 billion units.
How are you in Sidel?
We really increased our commitments. Having agreed only a year ago to reduce greenhouse gas emissions at our own sites and facilities by 30 percent by 2030, we have now moved these targets to a single use, pledging to reduce the our emissions in that timeframe. Therefore, we are now committed to being on the 1.5°C path and will be part of the best efforts to limit global warming.
All our sites will be 100% green energy-powered by the end of this year. Our new site in Santa Maria da Feira, Portugal (pictured) is a good example, with intelligent lighting control and electric car charging stations.
As an equipment manufacturer, what can you do to influence the supply chain?
Sidel fully embraced this challenge. We want to be at the side of our customers and lead our suppliers towards a more sustainable future: only by working with partners can we make a difference. We make sure we understand their goals moving forward and let them know they are not alone! This requires a continuous dialogue and we will use all our technical knowledge and smart data analytics to help them.
We have reduced the energy consumption of our machines – our blowers now use 45% less energy. We also halved the water consumption of our bottle washers and developed a digital suite that helps customers monitor and adjust their energy consumption on the production line. We upgraded the existing lines, to make them more energy efficient and sustainable, which last year saved more than 1,500 tons of CO2. As an example, helping our UAE-based customer Zulal switch to a new integrated packaging line configuration led them to energy savings of 56%.
Our designers are able to optimize product design to create packaging that uses less material and less resources when it is blown and transported. Our molding technology allows reducing the weight of bottles, reducing material use as well as energy consumption and transport emissions.
We help customers deal with regulatory changes – for example, the switch to tethered caps that will be mandatory on all bottles in Europe and the UK from 2024 to reduce waste.
We are committed to reducing the emissions of everything we buy and sell by 25% by 2030, against a baseline of 2019. We recently started a supply chain initiative to support our suppliers to start their own commitment and track progress against our common goals.
Our efforts have been recognized as we have been awarded an A- rating for our supplier engagement by CDP (Carbon Disclosure Project), a global non-profit environmental organization.
What are the regulatory and government pressures on the packaging industry?
There is now a general request for manufacturers to take more responsibility for waste management, with the aim of making a strong transition from a linear to a circular model of economy. Currently 63 countries have implemented Extended Producer Responsibility measures to encourage schemes such as product take-back, deposit-refund, and waste collection guarantees. Many governments are open to funding and building better recycling infrastructure.
Plastic packaging is often seen as the enemy of the environment. How do you make a positive case for this?
It is difficult to change perceptions, but the truth is that lifecycle analysis shows that plastic, and especially PET, has the best carbon footprint of the materials available today. If properly collected and recycled, PET can provide the best answer to today’s sustainability challenge.
We need to see packaging as a resource, not a waste. If we can prevent it from ending up in the environment by keeping it in a circular economic loop, PET plastic packaging can play an important role in protecting and distributing our most valuable products. .
Since 2019 we have been a signatory to the New Plastics Economy Global Commitment, which was launched by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation and the UN Environment Program to accelerate the transition to a circular economy.
Like it or not, plastic packaging will be with us in the near term and is expected to increase, especially in Asia Pacific, Middle East, Africa and India. So, we need to make this growth more sustainable, and for that we all need to engage all the levers of the 5Rs: Reduce, Recycle, Reuse, Replace and Reinvent (see diagram).
Reduction is the first and most important action, and it should start from the actual design of the packaging. Reuse is coming to the fore, with more refill options for consumers, both at home and on the go. The Promotion of Recycling is very important, both in quantity and in quality: return methods such as reverse vending machines that encourage consumers have proven to be a good tool to achieve both. Easier-to-recycle solutions by using a mono-material layer instead of multiple layers of multiple materials are on the rise.
PET is now the most recycled type of plastic, thanks also to its ability to achieve food grade quality even when recycled. This will become more widespread in line with the ambitious targets that the owners of major brands have set for themselves in terms of the percentage of recycled PET, known as r-PET, in their packaging.
We are also actively seeking to replace new bio-sourced or bio-based materials and are looking at ways to completely reinvent the way packaging is planned.
What is holding back the widespread adoption of recycled PET?
The amount of recycled PET in packaging is increasing but progress is slow, with an estimated global average of 8% compared to 5% in 2018. In Europe, the average is already at 15% and is projected to be around 35 % by 2030.
Sidel offers a testing and validation service to help customers deal with the inherent variability of r-PET and we have installed our own pilot-scale PET recycling line near Le Havre in France. Sidel also signed R-Cycle, the open tracing standard for sustainable plastic packaging. It provides a digital product passport, and is a big step towards the implementation of a truly circular economy and more efficient process chains. Partners from around the world can record and capture all relevant packaging properties to improve their product sustainability, quality, and manufacturing process.
It takes time to put recycling facilities in place, but we are seeing more and more investment in recycling facilities in Europe. Materials and chemicals companies such as Eastman, Indorama and Carbios have recently announced major recycling initiatives in France and another, Suez, is creating new recycling capacities in Belgium.
Overall, are you optimistic or pessimistic about the role the packaging industry will play moving forward?
I am optimistic because I believe in the creativity of our engineers and the growing collective determination to set and achieve difficult targets. Ultimately, it will be a combination of innovation, ingenuity, and collective will from regulators, industry and consumers to make the best use of our precious resources.