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Full hall and packed programme at Dresden Packaging Conference

13 December 2024

Retail, brands, mechanical engineering, research, NGOs, start-ups and young students: the 34th Dresden Packaging Conference from 4 to 6 December 2024 offered its more than 200 participants a packed programme with 19 presentations, a prime minister, product and technology premieres

Furthermore, plenty of dialogue and discussion along the value chain and a double in-house exhibition in the run-up to the event. Our conference report summarises important insights from each presentation for you.

Welcome and thanks

In the conference hall, which was very well filled with over 200 participants, moderator and dvi senior consultant Winfried Batzke first thanked the partners and sponsors of the conference: FACHPACK as premium partner of the dvi, Mitsubishi Electric as major sponsor, the long-standing sponsor Gerhard Schubert GmbH and the first-time sponsors Hermann Ultraschall, watttron GmbH, FormerFab GmbH and Packmatic GmbH.

What has characterised the Dresden conference for many years is also the large number of young students represented, who this year came from the Berlin University of Applied Sciences, HTWK Leipzig, Hanover University of Applied Sciences, HDM Stuttgart, TU Dresden, Munich University of Applied Sciences, Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences and the University of Kassel. The company representatives present were able to gain an overview with the help of profiles displayed on the Studi-Wall in the hall and approach interesting students directly. For their part, the young talents were able to search for exciting internships, Bachelor's and Master's theses and jobs on a wall of offers.

Moderator and dvi senior consultant Winfried Batzke

Winfried Batzke then opened the substantive part of the conference with a brief explanation of this year's conference motto ‘Everything is turning’: ‘Everyone involved in the packaging industry knows that everything is really turning at the moment, both in terms of materials and the economy. What's more, packaging is still far too often regarded as waste and superfluous. We want to turn that around too. That's why we've put together a comprehensive programme on global challenges, resources, reusable packaging, the circular economy, ideas that can make a difference and innovations in packaging.’

Reusable - solution or illusion? Laura Griestop, Senior Manager Sustainable Business & Markets at WWF Germany

The basic introduction to the topic of reusable packaging came from Laura Griestop, Senior Manager Sustainable Business & Markets at WWF Germany. Griestop began with a first-hand report from the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee on Plastic Pollution (INC-5) in Busan and explained the key points of the planned agreement. She then gave the participants a good overview of the topic of reusable packaging at global, European and national level. She outlined the situation in each case, what is already happening and what is still missing.

Regarding the efforts to reach a global UN agreement to combat plastic waste, Griestop said that it is ‘one of the fastest processes ever at UN level. Even the oil-producing countries agree that such a treaty is needed’ - even though it has not yet been adopted in Busan.

The most important elements of the planned treaty are the global ban on the most harmful and problematic plastic products and chemicals, global product design requirements for the transition to a zero-pollution circular economy with the keywords reduction, reuse, design for recycling and extended product responsibility (EPR), sufficient financial resources for system change and decision-making mechanisms to ensure that the treaty can be strengthened and adapted over time. For Griestop, one thing is clear: ‘We need a better way of dealing with plastic as a high-performance material.’

According to Griestop, the topic of reusable packaging is not yet explicitly included in the treaty, but is part of Article Five ‘Product Design’. Nevertheless, reusable packaging also plays a ‘huge role’ internationally. With regard to the new European packaging regulation PPWR, Griestop stated that we will have to wait for the ‘many delegated acts, which must specify how the regulation will be implemented’ before a final statement can be made. Griestop went into detail about the refill and reusable supply obligation for the to-go sector and the 2030 reusable targets for transport packaging and beverages.

With regard to Germany, the WWF representative explained that and why ‘the reusable supply obligation has failed as an instrument against the flood of packaging and for strengthening reusable to-go’. According to a study by the Gesellschaft für Verpackungsmarktforschung (gvm), the number of single-use packaging increased by around 7.4 per cent from 13.6 billion in 2022 to 14.6 billion in 2023, with the reusable rate rising from 0.7 to just 1.6 per cent. Griestop therefore demanded: ‘We need to strengthen reusable packaging now. To do this, we need to tighten up regulations, invest in the development and management of reusable systems and stimulate demand.’

The circular economy must be seen as a fundamentally different way of doing business. It is a marathon and not a sprint. ‘The transition to a circular economy is on the scale of an industrial revolution,’ says Griestop. Companies would also have to rethink their own key performance indicators (KPIs). In response to a question from the audience, the WWF expert argued that there should be both incentives and bans: ‘Targets are needed, i.e. bans, but incentives are also needed.’

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For the full report please click here.

Source: dvi