Some 300 executive management personnel and decision-makers from throughout the entire added value chain assembled on March 14th at the invitation of the German Packaging Institute (dvi) for the 19th German Packaging Congress in Berlin. High-ranking representatives from the worlds of politics and business provided insights and information to a record crowd. Lively discussions made this “packaging industry network summit” a congress with a workshop character revolving around issues of sustainability, the circular economy and digitisation.

The packaging industry summit was opened by the Federal Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection, Steffi Lemke, with the statement, “It’s good that your congress is taking place on this day in particular – in a decisive phase for the industry, but also in a decisive phase for Europa.” The minister had emphasised the day before the final agreement in the trilogue procedure on the new European Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) that, “…the packaging industry, the German system that has been created here in recent years with very good ecological approaches, has remained on the minds of many people as representative of the circular economy. So it’s good for us to intensively integrate your decades of experience into circular economy strategy.” Looking to the PPWR, Ms Lemke closed with the statement that she “…is building on the basis that we can now implement precisely this PPWR for your industry at the European level. We’re happy to continue discussing any remaining problems in the national implementation with you in order to always develop modified solutions wherever possible.”

Following the keynote speech, Claudia Fasse, who hosted the congress, surveyed the participants in a show of hands on whether they would vote in favour or against ratification of the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation, even though it surely only represents an “80 percent compromise”. With an eye on planning security and the harmonisation of the European patchwork quilt of natural regulations, an overwhelming majority voted in favour of the introduction of the PPWR.

Following the minister, the FDP’s spokesperson on environmental and consumer protection policy, Judith Skudelny, addressed the attendees on her party’s position. Ms Skudelny emphasised the importance of packaging in relation to product protection, given that the overwhelming proportion of resources are contained within the product. She said that ideas for solutions have to come from the business rather than the political side, which is poorly equipped to assess where excessive packaging begins or ends.

Heike Vesper, the WWF Germany Managing Director of Politics & Transformation, presented the WWF study published last year called “Model Germany – Circular Economy”, which takes a scientific basis in outlining a comprehensive circular economy for Germany with specific measures for policies and business, and defines packaging as an individual field of activity.

Christoph Zeiler, the Metsä Group’s Senior Vice President of Corporate Affairs, spoke in his presentation about support of the circular economy with recyclable solutions. Dietmar Böhm, CEO of PreZero International, emphasised that the issue of packaging is extremely complex and cannot be resolved by packaging materials manufacturers, contract packagers, distributors or recyclers alone, and that cooperation is indispensable.

Dr Christian Detrois, Packaging Lead Nestlé Zone Europe, informed the congress regarding his company’s sustainability agenda and the role of recycled materials usage. Lilith Lauk, Senior Packaging Engineer at Henkel AG & Co. KGaA, presented the numerous aspects that must be taken into consideration for the circular economy and extensively addressed the issue of recycled materials usage. Michael Janzer, Division Manager of Quality and Sustainability at Lidl International, presented the jointly conceived plastics strategy of the Schwarz group’s companies and gave specific examples of how sustainable packaging solutions can be approached comprehensively. Kay Stoss, Managing Director of Mondi Bupak, focused on solutions based on “hybrid papers” for e-commerce.

Gian De Belder, Technical Director R&D Packaging Sustainability at Procter & Gamble, gave an intriguing current insight into the “Digital Watermarks Initiative – HolyGrail 2.0”. Mr De Belder said that retailers participating in the initiative in Germany include companies such as Aldi and Netto, for example. Dr Benedikt Brenken, Director of the R-Cycle initiative, concluded by presenting the digital product passport as an enabler of the circular economy. He maintained that the passport strengthens trust and loyalty, verifies material and recyclates sources and reduces reporting efforts and expenditures.

How sustainable changes can be promoted through the collaboration of start-ups and established industry partners, and how innovations and transformative processes can be established, initiated and implemented was demonstrated by Melissa Ott, Managing Director, and Annika Schoofs, Programme Manager at Futury, with the participation of Robert Hughes, co-founder and CEO of Scalize, Tobias Kreuzer, Senior Manager Supply Chain, Quality Assurance and Sustainability at McDonalds, and Nicole Scherrenbacher, Management Systems Director at Hengstenberg.

In the final presentation at the congress, Kai Müller, founder and CEO of Experience One, provided a look beyond the borders of packaging. Mr Müller is convinced that AI should be at the top of the agenda at German companies if they want to have a future. In his presentation, Mr Müller used the example of his own digital twin to illustrate the possibilities, limits, challenges and key aspects in the application of generative AI.

The intense participation of the auditorium gave the congress a workshop character and showed once again how vital and targeted the dialogue can be beyond the realm of material borders.v