Many companies all over the world, including Singapore, are working towards adopting more sustainable packaging to reduce its environmental impact. At the same time, sustainable materials can also contribute to cost-savings in materials, energy, transport and disposal.
As part of the Packaging Partnership Programme Training Series, the third training held on 3 February 2021 focused on helping the industry understand the basic principles of a life cycle assessment, highlighting the pros and cons. Examples of how life cycle assessments have been applied to help companies improve their operations and products was also explained.
There were more than 50 business representatives from different industries, packaging producers, testing and certification companies, food manufacturers as well as pharmaceutical industry players who attended the online training.
Mr Richard Smith, Director of Safety, Quality and Sustainability at Amcor Flexibles Asia Pacific (Australia and New Zealand) shared an overview of the circular economy, with focus on recyclability of packaging – mechanical and chemical. He also shared the properties of different types of flexible packaging and how flexible packaging could provide an advantage towards the circular economy in terms of recyclability. He also shared about companies who have adopted recycle-ready flexible packaging for their products, which not only improved the recyclability but also had a lower carbon footprint. Mr Smith iterated that collaboration across the full value chain is needed to move towards a circular economy.
