Wood fibre-based packaging alliance 4evergreen held its launch event named “Perfecting circularity with fibre-based packaging” yesterday (25 November).
It took place online and involved a panel debate with experts from the packaging sector, including Stora Enso (Finland), Huhtamaki (Finland), Mars (US), Nestlé (Switzerland) and Smurfit Kappa (Ireland).
The event focused on the alliance’s plans to move forward in making the industry more circular and sustainable, with ambitious goals to increase the recycling rates of fibre-based packaging to 90 per cent by 2030.
Susanne Haase, Programme Director of 4evergreen, said: “Fibre-based packaging is the most collected and recycled packaging material in Europe. Already today, we exceed the targets set for us by European legislation – But being good should not stop us from getting better.”
Virginijus Sinkevičius, EU Commissioner for Environment, Oceans and Fisheries, supported the initiative through a dedicated video address: “The Circular Economy can put Europe back on its feet, and packaging is an important part of the new Circular Economy Action Plan, it commits to ensuring that less packaging waste is generated overall and that all packaging is reusable or recyclable in an economically viable way in 2030.”
Kerstin Jorna, Director General at the European Commission’s Department for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs (DG GROW) commented that DG GROW is exploring how each of the 14 identified industrial ecosystems can add to the 55 per cent emission reduction goal, and what the investment needs related to the contribution to the climate target are.
In order to reach the 2030 target, 4evergreen has laid out objectives that will help: working on circularity guidelines; establishing industry-wide recyclability evaluation protocol; publishing guidelines for improved collection and sorting in Europe; and driving innovations in areas increasing circularity.
The alliance was established by the Confederation of European Paper Industries (CEPI) in 2019, to promote the use of fibre-based packaging. Its members include brands such as Nestlé, Sappi and Metsä Board.
CEPI has been raising awareness of the benefits of fibre-based packaging in recent years. Earlier this month it released a decarbonisation manifesto that encouraged the EU to make recyclable raw materials, like high quality virgin fibre, more accessible to producers.
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