Sustainable solutions for packaging: the webinar with CNA Emilia-Romagna
During a webinar last Thursday, March 3, organized by CNA Emilia-Romagna in collaboration with MISTER, topics that are now at the center of the European debate were addressed, focusing on the European Green Deal. In particular, the event focused on adopting innovation and circular economy strategies to broaden the frontiers of the packaging world, toward increasingly sustainable and conscious production and use.
The discussion addressed the practical aspects of the issue, and MISTER researchers Anna Sagnella and Marco Ardoino reported on virtuous examples on a national and international scale of production and business initiatives based on:
- the use of recycled materials (mainly plastic) as an alternative to virgin or common plastic;
- re/eco-design approaches to product and packaging, some of these fundamental to optimizing recycling supply chains;
- systems for reuse of containers and packaging.
Also presented was the ECO-PACK project – an innovation and educational project funded by Fondirigenti and in which MISTER was a technology partner alongside the training providers CISITA, FAV and CIS – which aims to create a model of skills needed for the adoption of advanced sustainable packaging technologies.
During the focus group with companies, several issues mainly related to plastics were examined, such as:
- legislative initiatives to reduce its consumption;
- the technological difficulties of the food packaging industry (but not only) in replacing this material with, for example, compostables and bioplastics;
- the optimization of the management of plastics throughout their lifecycle so that their environmental impact is always less;
- future prospects.
Discussions with businesses laid the groundwork for opening up new forms of collaboration guided by the ambitious-but fundamental-goal of better and more respectful use of the resources at our disposal. These also underlined the importance and necessity of further exploration of topics and activities such as the circular economy, new materials, communication and education.
