Representatives from two of Europe’s most important plastic packaging associations, the French Elipso, or the French Plastic and Flexible Packaging Association (Paris; www.elipso.org) and the German IK or Industrievereinigung Kunststoffverpackungen (Bad Homburg; www.kunststoffverpackungen.de) recently met in Bad Homburg to discuss issues important to both national markets and to see where they could find common ground to encourage change in the European arena. The combined output of members from both associations amounts to more than 6.5m t/y of polymer use.

The chairmen of each association – the IK’s Roland Roth, who is also the CEO of RKW SE as well as Elipso’s Dominique-Paul Vallée, who is a senior executive at the Bericap Group – led the representatives through the day’s agenda. The joint meeting focused on two key areas: the European Commission’s Green Paper on Plastic Waste – see Plasteurope.com of 12.03.2013 and polymer sourcing for the European plastic packaging industry.

Concerning the Green Paper “on a European Strategy on Plastic Waste in the Environment” which was launched by the European Commission in March 2013, and is on consultation until June 2013, both groups agreed that is a very important document which needs their respective responses and constructive proposals. Sustainability is very high on the list of priorities for both organisations and their member companies in terms of eco design, source reduction, energy saving, recycling which are now integrated components of the innovation process.

Both IK and ELIPSO promote the use of LCAs (Life Cycle Analyses) as the tool for the plastic packaging industry to monitor and anticipate efficiently the environmental impacts which allow the industry to make the appropriate choices to reduce its impacts and make continuous improvement in these areas.

As for the other area discussed at the joint meeting, polymer sourcing for the European plastic packaging industry, they are worried about the degradation of the supply situation within the European polymer manufacturing industry. They are concerned with a lot of “too manys” and “too high” in several business segments: price volatility being too high; too great of a dependence on the naphtha supply situation and price; ageing polymer production tools, too many production stoppages and “forces majeures” for production breakdowns and emergency maintenances, insufficient investments, all of which affect the competitiveness and the supply quality to the industry.

Innovation was apparently a pervasive solution to several of the areas of concern as well as a belief that by combining forces, the two organisations can perhaps be the catalyst for spurring their respective member companies to come up with creative means to not only solve some of the issues facing the European market, but drive the industry in general to growth and long-term prosperity. It is through innovative ideas and a spirit of pro-activity the two associations believe the industry as a whole can thrive for the viable future.

Innovation in plastic raw materials remains vital to addressing the requests of the downstream market for improved competitive solutions and reduced environmental impacts. A robust sourcing of polymers in correct quantities, quality and prices is another the key response from the industry to keep it competitive and to continue proposing good economic, technical and environmentally friendly solutions to the downstream market of the European packers.

For those reasons the IK and Elipso agree to join forces and to be extremely pro-active in polymer sourcing from both European and non-European manufacturers.