The primary function of packaging is to protect the packaged product. Ensuring that the product arrives at its destination in perfect condition is very important due to the environmental impacts caused during the production phase. Packaging contributes to sustainability. This is well documented in several position papers issued by the WPO. The packaging industry as a whole is constantly reinventing itself. Over the past decades, there have been significant improvements in material and energy efficiency as well as the overall ecological footprint. Optimal packaging brings ecological benefits for both the packaging manufacturer and the filler.
Great emphasis was placed on the issue of packaging waste. In developed countries, the direction of the circular economy is determined, in which waste becomes a new raw material. The problem of littering remains a social challenge in many areas of the world.
Good packaging contributes to the provision of safe and hygienic food around the world. The packaging industry has also made chemical safety efforts to meet strict regulations.
The WPO also supports the Global Protocol for Packaging Sustainability, GPPS 2.0, which provides excellent guidance when conducting any environmental benchmarking.
The Sustainability Award, judged and issued by the WPO, is a step in the right direction in rewarding new innovations supporting the development of even more sustainable packaging.
A guide to global packaging design for recycling
The Global Packaging Design Guide for Recycling has been developed by the ECR community, the World Packaging Organization (WPO) and FH Campus University of Applied Sciences, Austria and is available for download.
The Recycling Packaging Design Guide is a starting point for understanding best practice examples using state-of-the-art technology that can then be applied and adapted to suit regional and local recovery and recycling capabilities and infrastructure.
The guide can be applied to products from the Food, Near-Food and Non-Food segments and is applicable to all primary, secondary and tertiary packaging; provided that product-specific packaging system regulations are followed.
The WPO sees this new resource as a first step towards developing a consistent global concept of circular design thinking for materials and packaging.