Deepak Manchanda started the one-day Packaging, Design, Innovation, and Technology Conference in New Delhi on 13 December 2019, by saying, “I am sure that many of us would agree that many parts of the world are in conflict today. We are perhaps at a tipping point where climate change is not only being debated but being hotly protested even by children across the globe. Amidst all this, the world has found a new villain, a new enemy – plastic. Although around for a while, but identified as new enemies are thin plastic bags, plastic straws, pouches, and many more.
“Packaging, which has till now been seen only as a vehicle of economic growth, capable of helping all other products to grow, has suddenly come to be seen as an enemy agent, destroying our environment. While these ideas are not new in themselves, at this point, there is now a global awareness – arising perhaps partly from the shrill campaigns about climate change and campaigns such as Swatch Bharat in India. In all these campaigns, packaging litter in the urban, rural, and landfill environment is seen as a major villain, and everybody wants it to disappear.
“For this reason, the packaging industry today is under extraordinary pressure to rethink its role in the economy. Governments, as well as consumer groups, want the packaging industry to be responsible for the mess it creates in the environment in its post-consumer state. This means the packaging industry must not only produce effective packaging with good shelf life and shelf appeal but must also innovate materials and processes that reduce the amount of packaging needed to make it recyclable. In other words, the packaging industry is increasingly obliged to reduce the resources it uses and also become a part of the circular economy that demands materials to become fully recyclable and reusable.
“Concurrent with all this is the talk of bans on single-use plastic and the government’s plastic waste management rules. These impose heavy penalties on polluting the environment with plastic packaging waste, which is non-biodegradable and continues to leach toxins into the landfills for hundreds of years after it gets discarded.
“It is for such reasons that the packaging industry and, in particular, the plastic packaging manufacturers are forced to confront their reason for existence. And, to find innovative ways of meeting packaging demand and yet comply with the statutory embargoes.
“These compliances are not easy for the industry. That is where the pain points are. We believe that meeting all the requirements and ticking all the boxes is as complex as trying to square a circle – that is, squaring the circle of the circular economy. That is why we have made the theme of this PDIT circumference, squaring the circle of responsible packaging. We expect to look at this theme from two broad verticals – responsible, sustainable packaging, and the role the active and intelligent packaging.”
