ORGANISERS of Packaging Innovations and Luxury Packaging London said they are ‘thrilled’ with how the event turned out.
The show treated visitors to a seminar line-up set across two stages, with representatives from the likes of PepsiCo, The Body Shop, Waitrose, Iceland, and OPRL discussing major topics such as sustainability, new materials, design, and e-commerce.
The event also launched its new discussion platform, the £10 Billion Debate, which explored the latest government initiatives to manage packaging waste. On day one of the show, experts debated Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR), the Deposit Return Scheme (DRS), and Waste Management Consistency (WMC).
During the debate, Stuart Lendrum (head of packaging, quality and food safety at Iceland), who recently pledged to be plastic-free by 2023, said, “Our existing waste management system isn’t efficient, but if EPR goes ahead then we are signing up for something that is essentially the same thing. £10 billion will not be enough to create a new system that does not suffer the same major design flaws. The journey we have to go on is huge. We need a less fragmented system to the one that we have today but there is no sign of that coming through. We need more incentives and disincentives to drive the real change that’s needed.”
Elsewhere, Will Connolly (head of packaging innovation & sustainability at The Body Shop) and Simon Elmer (global head of NPD at William Grant & Sons) discussed how the changing retail landscape is posing anew challenges to packaging developers and designers. Offering advice from his experience working on The Body Shop’s project to introduce new refillable packaging, Will Connolly said, “Single-use products won’t go away overnight. But what we can do is focus on getting packaging for products like body butters and lipsticks, etc. to become fully recyclable to cut down on our use of single-use plastics whilst working on our refill, reuse concepts.”
New materials was also a hot topic in London. Paula Chin (sustainable materials specialist at WWF) said, “We need to stop over-focusing on plastic and instead determine the hot spot of sustainability for each material, and that shouldn’t rest on a material being good if its recyclable or bad if it isn’t. We also need to reduce our use of virgin materials as we are currently exporting more material to be recycled than what is then used in production. The numbers don’t add up. Continuing to compare different materials is unproductive, every material has its own impact, so we need to be using the right material for the job, instead of playing material switch.”
Following the pandemic-related impact on trade shows since early 2020, visitors and exhibitors revealed the benefits of being able to attend an in-person exhibition.
Christopher Brown (senior campaign strategist and print specialist at Relish Agency) said, “The seminars were a really interesting look into sustainability driving consumer interest. There was so much content which you can pick up, touch, and feel. Being face-to-face with suppliers is also a positive benefit!”
Stewart Serls (commercial director at Label-Form), added, “We’ve had a flow of leads from established businesses and one or two start-ups. It is lovely to be back face-to-face because you can have much better, positive interactions with people.”
Renan Joel, divisional director of event organisers Easyfairs, said, “I’m thrilled with how the show has gone this year. After so long without in-person events, it was important that we reignited the packaging community’s ability to do business face-to-face, which is exactly what we achieved.
“With a stacked line-up of experts across our seminar stages offering the latest advice to challenge perceptions, and a packed show floor of exhibitors demonstrating the very latest innovations, we were certainly back with a bang. It was fantastic to see familiar faces from across the FMCG, retail and luxury communities and I’m excited to continue this momentum into 2022.”
