Packaging, we’ve got it covered!

Nothing is more certain! The design and production of packaging has become a fully-fledged "science". A means of communication and protection, packaging has experienced an extraordinary boom directly linked to our manner of consumption. Its impact on our environment has also grown in proportion, making a significant contribution to the pollution of our planet. Now Europe and the countries in the European Union have issued strict rules aimed at the recycling of packaging or, at least, its recovery. Producers must try to outdo each other therefore in terms of ingenuity in order to respond to their customers’ new needs, whilst providing them with solutions that are as environmentally friendly as possible.

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How did we reach this situation? Rapid changes in the way we consume are, of course, at the root of the explosion in the packaging sector. Early signs were provided by the growth of the population since the 1960s. These years also saw a breakdown in family structures with the multiplication of single parent homes. In order to meet the needs of these new consumers, manufacturers in the food industry adapted and offered a mass of products packed in individual sachets, mini-portions, reduced capacity containers and demi-portions. Purchasing power, in turn, relentlessly increased: “reasoned” buying now coexisted with “impulse” buying. Women were working full time and created a new market for ready-cooked meals.

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Product distribution passed into the hands of the supermarkets where the majority of foodstuffs on sale were already packaged. Consumer confidence in the hygiene of ready packed goods grew. Finally, technological innovations allowed an increasing number of consumers to acquire electric and electronic goods at low prices, and discard them therefore at the first signs of them going wrong. All this meant more progress, but also more waste.

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In the 1960s, no-one worried about the impact of waste - normally dumped at more or less uncontrolled sites - on the environment. But, in the 1990s, awareness gradually began to grow: a change in behaviour was now required and this relentless rise in the tonnage of waste needed to be stopped.

The ecological issue

Packaging does in fact constitute a high percentage of the waste generated in industrialized countries. Producers, consumers, importers and distributors of packaged goods have had to become aware therefore of the role of packaging in the production of waste and have had to react to limit its negative impact as much as possible. With this in mind, European, national and regional legislators have created restrictive rules in this respect. On 14 December 1994, Europe issued a directive fixing recycling and energy recovery targets for all types of packaging by 2001.  These targets were quickly reached by the majority of countries and they were then increased for 2008.

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In 1998, Europe also specified a range of eco-design procedures that companies needed to develop. The Walloon, Flemish and Brussels Regions therefore opted to create the Interregional Packaging Commission (“Commission Interrégionale de l´Emballage” and abbreviated to CIE), a public institution whose main purpose is to organize the harmonized management of packaging waste. The CIE imposes recovery, information and prevention obligations on companies responsible for packaging. More specifically, the companies in question must be able to prove that the industrial packaging they use when selling their products is genuinely recyclable or recoverable. Waste recovery can be either by recycling or by incineration with energy recovery. Since 1999 the quotas have been set at 50% recycling and 80% total recovery. A 15% recycling rate must also be achieved by the packaging materials themselves (glass, paper/cardboard, plastic, wood,...).

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For the future, current draft legislation leads one to assume that, within a few years, at least 90% of waste packaging will need to be recovered. Everyone using packaging, either packaging products themselves or having them packaged in Belgium and using at least 10 tonnes of packaging per year must in addition inform the CIE (Interregional Packaging Commission), every three years, of the measures they have implemented in terms of packaging waste prevention. They must make specific proposals to reduce the volume of their industrial packaging as well as proposals to promote the use of packaging that is more easily recyclable and/or reusable. Users of packaging who do not meet these three requirements expose themselves not just to administrative, but also to criminal penalties. Good students, Wallonia and its sister Regions have therefore, by applying these rules, gone further than the requirements imposed by Europe.

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Walloon packaging companies are in the know therefore with regard to the new issues affecting the sector. In first place, they search tirelessly for solutions that will enable their customers to meet their environmental obligations. Among innovations that have been suggested, mention can be made of the production of lighter packaging not requiring overpacking and the use of materials produced from renewable, biodegradable and/or recyclable resources. They actively participate in the debate therefore and offer packaging using different components: cardboard, wood, jute, textile, glass, plastic or metal for long and short production runs, polyethylene foam, but also innovative equipment for aseptic production for the pharmaceutical industry, as well as packaging for top of the range, luxury and seasonal goods or goods specific to the catering industry, isothermal packaging, airbags, rapid closing sachets (polygrip), packing lists and adhesive tape…

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Walloon companies also provide various services such as unitizing, filming, stretch wrapping, blister packing, printing, cutting and creating point of sale advertising or standard or adhesive labels for all types of printer (inkjet, laser, dot matrix, thermal, thermal transfer). Some companies are also experts in label application systems, and offer the option of printing variable information as well. Others are equipped with magnetic or vibration sorting equipment, such as separators, conveyors, feeders, screens, etc.

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In a word, Walloon companies are aware of the new challenges faced by their customers. Conscious of the added value they provide, their aim is to bring their know-how to the forefront of the international scene. All the more so since Wallonia has both a fabric of user companies, companies producing packaging related services and technology, and some of the largest international prime producers in the food and packaging field.