THE ROLE OF LARGE SCALE RETAILERS IN THE FUTURE OF SUSTAINABLE PACKAGING (recyclable, biodegradable and compostable)

On March 19, the third Italian event of the Biocompack project took place. After the first two workshops where space was given to producers and processors, this conference focused on large-scale retail distribution, one of the main players in the entire supply chain that can influence the market and the choices of final consumers. The event got the support of Assocarta, the association that brings together companies that produce paper and cardboard, and Assobioplastiche, the Italian association of bioplastics and biodegradable and compostable materials.

Participation in the conference was very high, with the entire Italian packaging industry present and journalists from specialist magazines.

After a brief introduction by Laura Brambilla of Legambiente, partner of the project together with Innovhub-SSI, the first session, coordinated by the Kyoto Club Vice-President Francesco Ferrante, saw the participation of Enzo Favoino, Scientific Coordinator of Zero Waste Europe, with an intervention on the EU strategy on plastics, Giorgio Zampetti, General Director of Legambiente, who spoke about the challenges in the field of sustainable packaging, Graziano Elegir, from Innovhub, which went into the details of the project strategy, and Carlo Montalbetti, General Director of Comieco, the mandatory consortium of paper and cardboard packaging recycling, with a presentation on the recycling of paper and bioplastic packaging.

The second session was a round table with the large-scale retail distribution brands. Participants included Renzo Vudafieri, Director of the Technical Department of the Retail Sector of EcorNaturaSì, Vanni Corbonese, Finiper Packaging Project Director, Alfio Fontana, Carrefour Italy CSR Manager, Renata Pascarelli, Coop Italia Quality Director, Massimo Ramunni, Assocarta Vice President, and Marco Versari, Assobioplastiche President. The environmental journalist Enrico Fontana coordinated the round table.

There were also numerous ideas and interventions from the public that contributed significantly to the debate.

Below you can download the conference proceedings:

Analysis of paper-plastic value chain_ITALY

Come si verifica il packaging biodegradabile e compostabile?

Strategia per la sostenibilità dei multimateriali carta/plastica in Central Europe

Il riciclo degli imballaggi in carta e bioplastica - Carlo MONTALBETTI (General Director Comieco)

La strategia UE sulle plastiche: premesse, previsioni e valutazioni di prospettiva linee di azione tra iniziative UE e cambi di paradigma - Enzo FAVOINO (Scientific Coordinator Zero Waste Europe)

Strategie per la sostenibilità dei multimateriali a base di carta/plastica - Graziano ELEGIR (Innovhub-SSI)