The World Packaging Organisation (WPO) has released a Packaging Design for Recycling Guide, which is a global recommendation for circular packaging design for industry.
It has been developed in partnership with the ECR Community – a global not-for-profit organisation representing the retail and wholesale sector, and FH Campus University of Applied Sciences in Austria.
The Packaging Design for Recycling Guide is a starting point to understand best practice examples using state-of-the-art technology, which can then be applied and tailored to suit the recovery and recyclability capabilities, and infrastructure on a regional and local level.
The guide can be applied to products from the food, near-food and non-food segments, and is applicable to all primary, secondary and tertiary packaging, provided that product-specific regulations of the packaging system are observed.
“Some months ago, when the WPO had the idea to develop an international circular packaging design guide, the project seemed an impossible pipe dream,” said Nerida Kelton, vice-president of sustainability & save food for the WPO.
“As we proudly release the first component of this guide to the world, the WPO have shown that a dream can become a reality. This resource was simply not possible without our wonderful collaborative partners who worked alongside the WPO at every stage.
”The WPO sees this new resource as the first step to developing a consistent global notion of circular design thinking for materials and packaging. The next step is to encourage all of our 53 member countries to not only use the tool, but also work with the WPO to develop more localised versions that suit their countries and regions.
“This is the only way to provide better quality of life, through better packaging, for more people globally.”
According to Declan Carolan, co-chair of the ECR Community, the organisation is delighted to support the publication of these global recommendations for circular packaging design for recycling.
“This guide aims to promote knowledge development within the retail and consumer product group (CPG) sector as companies transition to new packaging designs, which help to minimise their environmental impact, while ensuring packaging remains fit for purpose and continues to look good,” explained Carolan.
“We recognise both the challenges and opportunities that the transition to a circular economy will bring, and understand that circular packaging and supporting recycling systems are a crucial step in this process.
“As retailers and manufacturers start to publicly commit to significantly reducing their plastic packaging over the coming years, these recommendations should help to guide the conversation.
“The use of straightforward traffic light system with colour coding, makes it easy to read and understand for all senior executives. Getting buy-in from across the business and from those in your supply chain is essential when making such changes.”
Dr Ernst Krottendorfer, co-managing partner of Circular Analytics, who was one of the key developers of the international guide, stressed that it is just the first step towards a common global understanding and harmonisation of circular packaging design.
“Further steps will follow to either establish or improve harmonised collection and sorting flows for packaging in many countries, through the partnership with the WPO member countries and ECR community,” said Krottendorfer.
“This new global guide is a successful solution that was born from international collaborative efforts between the packaging, consumer products and retail sectors.
“We are proud that Packforce Austria have contributed to the creation and further development of this guideline.”
The Packaging Design for Recycling Guide: A Global Recommendation of Circular Packaging Design is now available on the WPO website.
