The Packaging Partnership Programme (PPP) held a joint conference with the Singapore Manufacturing Federation’s (SMF) Packaging Council of Singapore (PCS) Industry Group on 7 October 2022 at M Hotel Singapore. Themed “Moving Towards Extended Producer Responsibility for Packaging”, the PPP x PCS Conference 2022 was graced by Senior Minister of State for Sustainability and the Environment Dr. Amy Khor as the Guest-of-Honour.
The Conference programme was as follows:
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Topic |
Speaker |
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Sharing of Technical Reference on “Sustainable Packaging Guiding Framework and Practices” |
Ms Allison Lim, Convenor of Technical Reference, from Alliance to End Plastic Waste
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Plenary 1 – Sustainable Packaging Design |
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Key Note Presentation on Sustainability in Packaging from the Point of View of Inks and Coatings
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Mr Jose Novo, Key accounts Manager from Toyo Ink |
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Presentation on Sustainable Packaging: Save the World, Build Your Brand
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Mr Kimming Yap, Co-founder and Managing Director from Creativeans |
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Presentation on EU’s approach Towards Circular Economy in Packaging |
Dr Mathias Gustavsson, Senior Researcher from IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute |
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Panel Discussion on Sustainable Packaging Design |
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Plenary 2 – Extended Producer Responsibility for packaging Waste Management |
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Presentation on Singapore’s Journey Towards EPR to Manage Packaging Waste
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Mr Christopher Tan, Director, Sustainability Division from National Environment Agency |
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Presentation on the Overview on Packaging EPR Systems: Australia as a Case Study |
Ms Nerida Kelton, Vice President, Sustainability & Save Food from World Packaging Organisation (WPO) |
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Presentation on Overseas Deposit Refund Scheme Experience
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Mr James Dorney, CEO of Australia Tomra Cleanaway |
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Panel Discussion on Extended Producers Responsibility and Moving Towards Circularity |
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Plenary 1 – Sustainable Packaging Design
Plenary 1’s speaker lineup featured Mr. Jose Novo from Toyo Ink, Mr. Kimming Yap from Creativeans, and Mr. Mathias Gustavsson from IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute, who shared their expertise in sustainable packaging design.
Mr. Jose Novo, who joined virtually from Japan, presented on Sustainability in Packaging from the Point of View of ink and Coatings. He shared the 3 sustainability challenges that companies commonly faced. This included reducing carbon footprint, redesigning for circularity, and improving the end of life by making packaging suitable for treatments at the end of the product life.
Mr. Kimming Yap next spoke on the topic of Sustainability for Branding. He introduced ways for making packaging sustainable including taking into consideration the packaging end of life at the design stage. He shared his design on a tea brewing set which won the Singapore Packaging Star Awards in 2020. Besides the typical function of brewing tea, the box of the tea set could be reused as a coin box as well.
Mr Mathias Gustavsson, who joined virtually from Sweden, then shared the European Union’s (EU’s) approah Towards Circular Economy in Packaging. The EU actions included jumping into packaging trends by making designs easier to recycle, and the EU Directive on Single-Use Plastics (SUP), which eliminates SUP to be placed on the market in 2021.
Plenary 1 closed off with a panel discussion involving the aforementioned speakers and Mr Sreekumar from SAP, with the Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT)’s Dr Siti Noorbaiyah moderating. Many questions were received from the floor physically and online, including how companies could address the waste on food packaging, the EU's stand on chemical recycling, and the acceleration of processes to end of life.
Plenary 2 – Extended Producer Responsibility Approach to Packaging Waste Management
Plenary 2 focused on the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) approach to packaging waste management. Its speaker lineup included Mr. Christopher Tan from the National Environment Agency (NEA), Ms. Nerida Kelton from Sustainability & Save Food in the World Packaging Organisation (WPO), and Mr. James Dorney from Tomra Cleanaway.
Mr Christopher Tan covered the topic of “Singapore’s Journey Towards Extended Producers Responsibility to Manage Packaging Waste" which takes into consideration of the Mandatory Packaging Reporting (MPR), the upcoming Beverage Container Return Scheme, as well as the launch of the Packaging Partnership Programme (PPP) in building industry capabilities in sustainable packaging waste management.
Ms Nerida Kelton, who joined virtually from Australia, spoke about Australia’s EPR system. She shared about the WPO goals of reducing food waste, packaging waste, and increasing awareness through education. She also shared some initiatives that Australia and New Zealand had started, including the National Plastics Plan 2021 which focused on the increase of plastic recycling while reducing the use of unnecessary plastics.
Finally, Mr James Dorney’s topic of choice was “Overseas Deposit Refund Scheme Experience”. He shared on the deposit return system (DRS) in New South Wales and TOMRA’s role as a network operator, making sure that the data on containers returned was updated in real-time. He also explained how the New South Wales circular economy approach had resulted in a 79% decrease in CO2 emissions through the use of recycled PET instead to virgin PET.
Similar to Plenary 1, Plenary 2 closed with a panel discussion that was moderated by Ms. Yvonne Lin from World Wildlife Fund for Nature Singapore (WWF-SG). The panelists fielded numerous questions regarding the implementation of the BCRS as well as the improvement of recycling and recycling facilities in Singapore.
Launch of Technical Reference 109
The Conference Concluded with the launch of a new Technical Reference (TR), TR 109 on Sustainable Packaging Guiding Framework and Practices. Ms. Allison Lim, Convenor of the TR109 working group, shared that it specified guidelines, criteria, and best practices in implementing the 3Rs (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle) for business-to-business and business-to consumer packaging, taking into consideration practices that are sustainable in Singapore’s context.