Sustainable Packaging: Eco-Friendly and Unbreakable

The packaging manufacturers help the industry to reduce their ecological footprint. They design new packagings and develop the associated production processes. This is no easy task. Raw material consumption needs to be reduced by using thinner and smaller amounts of resource-intensive materials, but this must not compromise the integrity and stability of the packaging. “The top priority is protection of the packaging contents,” says Stefan Glimm, Managing Director of the German Aluminum Industry Association (GDA). There is a good reason for this. According to the European Organisation for Packaging and the Environment (EUROPEN), the value of the resources input into and held in food products is much higher than the value of the packaging that protects these products. Product losses resulting from inadequate packaging therefore account for more carbon dioxide emissions than are saved by eliminating surplus packaging. In developing countries, food losses are a big problem: According to EUROPEN, 40 percent of the goods in the supply chain are lost. Better protection of products in these countries could therefore considerably ease the burden on the environment. At the interpack 2011 trade fair, to be held from May 12 - 18, 2011 in Düsseldorf, Germany, food protection will be one of the key themes. The special exhibition SAVE FOOD, organized together with the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations, shows how the individual elements in the value chain can make a contribution, in terms of packaging, logistics and transport, to cutting worldwide food waste.