Sustainability after the “turn of an era”: At the invitation of the German Packaging Institute (dvi), around 230 participants from industry and politics recently discussed strategies and ways forward at the 18th German Packaging Congress in Berlin.

Core topics of the “packaging industry summit” were the status of the packaging industry after the “turn of an era”, sustainability strategies as well as the current plans of the regulators from Brussels and Berlin. In addition, the packaging industry network honoured the life’s work of Alfred T. Ritter with the Dieter Berndt Award. At the start of the congress, the dvi published the results of a population survey on central topics related to packaging.

The presentations and discussions with political representatives focused on the topic of circular economy and the plans of the new EU Packaging Regulation. In his keynote speech, Michael Kellner, Parliamentary State Secretary at the Federal Ministry of Economics and Climate Protection and the Federal Government's Representative for Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises, emphasized the value and importance of packaging. He attested that the companies in the sector have a lot of experience and competence in the field of circular economy as well as outstanding achievements in research and pilot projects. What is less successful, however, is scalability and implementation on a large scale. As one of the central aspects of the circular economy of packaging, the State Secretary named the increase of the recycling share of plastic packaging and a higher supply of recycled material.

In the subsequent discussion, dvi Managing Director Kim Cheng urged that packaging also be publicly given the value it has. She referred to the results of a representative population survey presented at the start of the congress. In the survey, a majority of 50.5 % stated that they considered the packaging to have a greater environmental footprint than the packaged product. 28.8 % saw the product with the larger environmental footprint, 20.7 % could not make an assessment. “It is true that for food, for example, packaging only accounts for around 3 percent of the climate impact on average – around 97 percent is due to the product,” Kim Cheng pointed out. “As an industry, we need to ensure that more people learn about the small effort packaging takes to protect big values. As long as people don’t realize this also ecological value of packaging, they will be accordingly careless with it.”

There was also political participation in the discussion round on the topic of recycling and the TV documentary “The Recycling Lie” broadcast last year. Its author Benedict Wermter reinforced his portrayal of plastic as an addictive system. The oil industry and chemical companies are dependent on the global growth market for disposable packaging – just like the trade brands that have committed themselves to the questionable marketing tool of recycling. Last but not least, waste management companies and recyclers profit from this. Yet, recycling is only damage minimization. Thus, the focus should be on avoidance, reuse and refilling.

Representatives of brands and waste management companies emphasized the successes and the achieved quotas in plastic recycling and pointed out that today 50 % of plastic is still disposed of in residual waste. People should not be confused and discouraged from recycling. It is important, especially in the case of plastics recycling, that new processes are also recognized and approved in order to increase the supply of recycled material.

Sustainability and environmental protection are also important concerns of the entrepreneur Alfred T. Ritter, owner of the chocolate production company Alfred Ritter GmbH & Co. KG, who was awarded the Dieter Berndt Prize. Prof. Dieter Berndt was the founder of the German Packaging Institute. Since 2015, the dvi has awarded a prize bearing his name for lifetime achievement.

In his laudatory speech, Oliver Berndt, son of Prof. Berndt and Head of Events & Marketing at the dvi, described the honoured man’s outstanding services to people, markets and the environment: “With his visionary commitment to sustainability and environmental protection, Alfred T. Ritter has set standards and paved the way.”

In his acceptance speech, Alfred T. Ritter emphasized that he was not talking about sustainability, but about future viability. He reported that his company had already introduced mono-material packaging made of polypropylene in 1991 and had been the first company to participate in the eco-audit regulation in 1996. By 2025, all packaging of the Ritter Sport brand is to be converted to materials from renewable sources. Unfortunately, the ambitious goal of switching from plastic to paper packaging for the square bars had to be postponed, as the performance in protecting against moisture and mechanical stress in particular had proven to be insufficient.

Alfred T. Ritter also reported on the work with cocoa bean farmers in Nicaragua, who could not afford CO2 and organic certifications since this was far too expensive for them: “Thus, as a company, you have to take care of these things yourself on site.” The laureate also underlined that industrial societies still consume too many resources. Significant progress needs to be made here, he stated.