Program

About four trillion physical consumer products are made and sold around the world annually. With more than a hundred million different types of products, from cans of soda to designer shirts, and processed seafood to athletic shoes, that’s a lot of stuff coming into the world every year.
While consumers and governments demand more sustainability, brands and manufacturers are struggling to make the digital transformation. A transformation that requires visibility of the supply chain – from the sourcing of materials and ingredients to the product’s journey to the consumer, through use and ultimately, disposal.
The challenge is that conventionally the consumer products industry has very limited traceability and visibility of the products they make and sell. EVRYTHNG changes this for consumer product brands by creating products #BornDigital. Connected (or born-digital) products give brands a new way to reach and stay connected with consumers -- think of it as an owned or direct media channel to provide consumers with information about product sourcing, sustainability, resale, recycling and more.
Our speaker will share how major consumer product brands are moving the industry one step closer to full circularity. EVRYTHNG allows brands to meet today’s consumer demand for transparency — providing the end-to-end supply chain traceability and visibility needed to achieve sustainable and circular production goals.

Due to growing pressures from regulators and consumers, corporates in packaging and CPGs are increasingly looking at innovations around packaging to better engage customers, drive more sustainable practices, and ultimately stay relevant in a fast-changing environment.
Through Plug and Play’s innovation platforms in New Materials and Packaging and in Food, we observe growing demand for innovations in areas such as active, smart and sustainable packaging. Startups and scaleups like TIPA, which is working with our corporate partners in our Food and Beverage program in Milan, are showing us the way of the future in key areas like compostable flexible packaging. Here, TIPA’s unique compound and film formulations enabling high mechanical barrier and optical properties demonstrate how fully compostable alternatives to polyethylene and polypropylene are possible today for food applications. Similarly, startups working on active compounds embedded in materials to lengthen the shelf life of products and on smart packaging enabling unprecedented applications for customer engagement and supply chain traceability demonstrate new ways in which packaging and materials can further create value for large corporates.

Mankind’s annual consumption of resources is much higher than mother Earth can reproduce in the same amount of time. The so called Earth Overshoot Day 2019 was on 29 July – again 3 days earlier than in 2018. We are acting as if we had the resources of 1,75 Earths.

The ever-growing availability of new products in conjunction with global eCommerce is leading to sheer unimaginable masses of packaging waste, and contributes clearly to the worldwide overconsumption of natural resources. eCommerce packaging is mainly made of cardboard or LDPE plastics, that in most cases can – but not necessarily is – being recycled. In fact, only 17% of the plastics that end up in Germany’s yellow recycling bins, is finally being recycled.

Recycling infrastructures are well established allover Europe, and these still have potential for optimization, but we must not make the mistake and see recycling as the ultimate solution to treat our trash. There are various alternatives to recycling that do not lead to any trash in the first place!!

One of these alternatives has just reached the eCommerce industry: RePack has introduced a reusable and returnable packaging service for eCommerce, that liberates webstores from the burden of packaging trash. RePack is more than a pure packaging, though. The RePack service has three elements: 1. The packaging itself, 2. a global return infrastructure, and 3. an integrated incentive system for the end-users. RePacks are designed to last at least 20 shopping cycles and are managed in RePacks own central pooling system.

So, how does it work? Consumers that receive their delivery in a RePack, can fold the empty RePack down to letter size, and return it by just dropping it into any postbox. Free of charge and worldwide. As reward for returning it, he or she can even pick a voucher for the next purchase at any of the RePacking webstores.

So far, more than 60 webshops across Europa have joined the RePack community by mostly offering RePack to their clients as an option, so the consumer, in the end, has the ultimate choice, and already leads to a percentage Repack share of 10 – 35%. And end user satisfaction is overwhelming. The webshops that are offering and using RePack have the chance to set a bold statement on sustainability, as they can save up to 80% of packaging related CO2 emissions, and almost 100% of trash.

Our data leads to the conclusion that now, in times of Fridays for Future movement and global climate strikes, consumers are ready for reusable packaging. As we cannot expect Fridays for Future movement go away soon, but getting bigger instead, increasing sustainability pressure on eCommerce players.

It’s yet on the webshops to act and make themselves futureproof now, or just react when population or legislation is forcing them to act, later.

Strong evidence for RePack and reusable packaging is not just a crazy idea from a tiny country close to the polar circle comes from Zalando and H&M that are currently running first trials with RePack. These trials are done in smaller countries or for certain product or customer groups only, but the seriousness behind it is promising.

More seriousness even comes from a current research, that is partly funded by the German Ministry of Education and Science called praxPACK, where the two retailer giants OTTO Group and Tchibo as well as the sustainability marketplace Avocadostore are committed to implement and test reusable packaging in practice. Goal of the project is to identify the current obstacles and find solutions and scaling mechanisms that enable the broad eCommerce market – from micro-retailer to eCommerce giant – to adapt reusable packaging systems easily with a minimum of effort.

Our vision is that eventually, reusable packaging is the new standard and single-use packaging is only second choice.

The presentation has four parts. In the first part, MIWA system will be introduced as a leading innovation in the field of sustainable packaging.
In the second part, the general issue related to plastic overproduction and pollution will be depicted based on selected facts and numbers. As the main source of information and graphics, the report “Risks and opportunities along the plastics value chain” published by PRI will be used. After this, three solution types or categories related to the plastics problem will be defined: a) improvements in recycling, b) material innovations and c) new delivery models based on reuse. The c) category, to which also MIWA system belongs, can bring very good effects in a relatively short time.
In the third part, the “Convenient environmentalist” concept will be introduced, using the research data of the UCLA Institute as presented on the “Earth Now: Earth 2050 Symposium” 2016. Their data show that a green innovation can only succeed by the consumers if – next to its benefits for nature – it also benefits the consumers themselves: bringing them whether a better performance, better status, health benefits or money savings. MIWA system is an example of how eco-friendly packaging can also bring positives to the retailers (smoother logistics) and the end customers (smart technology).
 “The time for reuse is now” is the key message of the fourth part – stressing the potential business benefits of reuse models as formulated in the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s “Reuse” publication. In conclusion, the speaker explains how MIWA system works in practice.

Roughly 40% of nowadays annual plastic production goes into packaging, hence, understanding how different packaging solutions, business models and services can support the transition towards an effective Cradle to Cradle Circular Economy is key. In this speech we will cover TriCiclos expertise ranging from downstream recyclables management solutions, to high-end upstream impact projects where the concept of waste is challenged and deleted for good. This includes the portrayal of the on-field experience interacting with every packaging solution imaginable, a particular human centered ecodesign case for a complex fresh vegetable, the implementation of returnable/refillable models, the development of recyclability index digital platforms and our latest innovation called ReGo, a real-time miniaturized recycling machine, where discarded yogurt cups are transformed and injected into building block-like toys.

“The Good Packaging” is a research project that focuses on the impacts of packages on the market, society, and environment, to promote the design, production, and use of packaging solutions that are not only communicatively effective and technologically advanced, but also more sustainable and socially responsible. This lecture is an attempt to trace some coordinates that inquire about how to develop “good” packages and what is the role of Design in the processes of innovation of the sector, according to a systemic and an ethical approach to packaging.

Conai presents the roadmap for packaging sustainability.
It is a guideline that illustrates the fundamental factors on which a concrete strategy is developed in order to increase the environmental value of packaging. This roadmap is born from the twenty-year experience of supporting companies for the innovations promoted on packaging and the growing attention of consumers on these issues.