Sustainable transformation
Eco-friendly packaging alternatives were showcased, from 100% recycled PET (rPET) and light-weighted primary packaging with tethered caps, to optimised secondary and tertiary packaging alternatives.
Francesca Bellucci -Sustainability Director at Sidel said that customers at drinktec were positively impressed by the focus Sidel put on sustainability:
“Sustainability is a journey that Sidel embarked upon many years ago and therefore we are already able to offer to our customers a lot of fantastic savings in energy, water, chemicals and in plastic consumption. We have demonstrated that we are serious about sustainability by setting our science-based targets; we are on the 1.5 degrees pathway in response to the Paris Agreement, to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, in order to limit global warming and we are reducing our scope 1&2 emissions by 50% by 2030 and scope 3 by 25%. At drinktec customers told us that sustainability is a key topic on their agenda now. It started a few years ago with the big corporations, but now it's cascading down to smaller customers and when they see that we can offer them not only sustainability savings but also cost savings, the interest grows immediately.”
Vincent Le Guen - Vice President Packaging, Moulds & Line Solutions at Sidel said that many of the packaging conversations that he had with customers at drinktec were around sustainability:
“Sustainability is really the way for customers to go, through packaging optimisation because they realise that we cannot dissociate sustainability from operational costs. At drinktec we offered a really good connection between being much more sustainable, while driving the cost of operation down. I am confident that existing and potential customers will follow through on some of the conversations we have had because packaging optimisation will drive line conversion. Sidel is now demonstrating this by enabling customers to provide more sustainable packaging at lower operational costs.”
For example, our new 1SKIN™ no label, 100% recycled PET bottle attracted a lot of interest. It is designed for sensitive beverages, protecting the beverage inside it and made for recycling with a tethered cap in line with upcoming EU regulations. We think this is going to drive additional business for our customers and enable them to provide consumers with very sustainable and attractive solutions.”
Naima Boutroy - Global Packaging Expert at Sidel said that one of the things that stood out at drinktec in conversations with customers was that they were pleasantly surprised that PET is one of the most sustainable packaging materials today:
“Customers were surprised that PET generates much lower greenhouse gas emissions in comparison to some other packaging materials because of the weight of the material in combination with the ability to recycle and close loop bottle to bottle. We presented some numbers and many people who we spoke to had no idea about huge savings on emissions from PET, particularly when you add 100% recyclability into the calculations. By using PET in combination with recycling and making bottles lighter we can make significant carbon savings and it is possible to move very close to being carbon neutral. Another trend was a lot of questions around the higher cost of moving to rPET and how to offset that by optimising packaging.”