wpo position on waste and recycling - world packaging organisation

8/19/2019 WPO Position on Waste and Recycling - World Packaging Organisation

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WPO Position on Waste and Recycling

The role of packaging in materials recycling cannot be stressed enough. The package protects and

informs about the product and enables e ffective supply chain logistics. While today’s packaging is

considered to be highly advanced and well optimized, there is s till room for improvement. , Used

packaging is often assessed as waste. This is a misconception as used packaging is a resource and

should not be termed waste.. Finding new materials and tools to further optimize packaging is always

on the agenda of every packaging technologist. But preventing waste throughout the supply chain must

be ba lanced against the fact that lost product puts a much bigger burden on the environment than the

packaging does.

Before a pack is made, designers and packaging technologists need to ensure that only the optimum

amount of materials are used to minimise the quantity of resources it contains. Once the packaging is

used, the three ‘R’s’ principle should be examined: Re-use, Recover, Recycle.

In this context we are only talking about packaging waste. The bigger debate is about the enormity of

food waste and the burden it places on the environment. In this area much of Academia and many

multinational corporations are researching ways of preventing such waste. And clearly, packaging must

be part of the solution.

Reuse of packaging is environmentally sound for regional delivery systems including deposit schemes.

Refill systems are good alternatives for many products, but an environmental assessment should

preferably be made to compare with single-trip solutions.

In many cultures, consumers expect their accrued waste to be taken away in an organized w ay. The

ideal situation is to have numerous collection points where all the delivered waste is collected and latersorted into streams for recovery. This is best achieved by national legislation and the setting up of

organizations to finance and unify recovery systems.

Successful recycling requires a well thought through logistics chain. Separation of materials from mixed

waste is technically possible, but not the preferred option. The further upstream sorting is done, the

better the quality of the recycled material. As a special subse t, the recycling of food packaging into new

food packaging is regulated and needs to meet high food hygiene standards.

Recycling of different packaging materials can be challenging. Steel and aluminum are normally well

suited for recycling. Glass can be recycled eas ily after colour sorting, although in some countries outlets

for recycled glass are scarce. Paper, corrugated boa rd and cardboard are normally easy to recycle into

new fibre products. There are several basic plastics used in packaging: polyethylene, polypropylene ,

polystyrene and PET All are easily recycled except polystyrene. And monolayer materials can be sorted

and recycled into the same material. However, since multilayer film structures are more difficult to

recycle, they rende r bes t for mixed plastics recycling or energy recovery. An example of this is metalizedfilms. A special problem is posed by biodegradable materials, which have to be composted o r

anaerobically digested and no t mixed with other plastics waste streams. Many experts agree that the

best recycling quality for single trip packaging is achieved through depos it schemes. However, in certain

parts o f the world, deposit schemes are not effective or desirable, particularly in nations where financial

resources are s carce or collection methods are not dependable.

The World Packaging Organisation be lieves that packaging should be designed to fit its original purpose,

while taking all expected recovery methods into perspective. This has to be done to fit into existing or

planned waste management schemes. The world is heading towards a recycling society and the

packaging community together with all players in the delivery chain must act accordingly. Packaging is

part of the solution to achieve tomorrow’s sustainable society. WPO believes that this position meets

our primary objective, “Better quality of life through better packaging for more people.”

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wpo position on waste and recycling - world packaging organisation

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