WPO president Luciana Pellegrino tells PKN why the new global initiative must recognise packaging’s contribution while creating space for honest debate and public feedback.
The global packaging community will mark the first World Packaging Day on 6 September, giving the industry a dedicated platform to explain its contribution to society while inviting scrutiny of the challenges it still needs to address.
Established by the World Packaging Organisation (WPO), the date coincides with the anniversary of the organisation’s foundation. In a PKN Industry Update interview, WPO president Luciana Pellegrino said the initiative grew from a visit to the Terra Sustainability Pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai, where messaging focused heavily on packaging waste.
“At that moment, we understood the need to raise the voice of packaging among different audiences and on global stages,” Pellegrino said.
The WPO developed the initiative through two years of consultation with its 77 members across 66 countries. World Packaging Day will be framed around four themes: Packaging for Progress, Packaging Against Food Waste, Packaging and Economic Growth, and Packaging and Sustainability.
While Pellegrino expects sustainability to feature prominently in the first year, she particularly wants packaging’s contribution to economic growth to gain wider recognition. She pointed to the WPO’s work with the United Nations Industrial Development Organization on sustainable food value chains in developing countries.
Where local producers lack suitable packaging, food can be lost before it generates an economic return. The WPO works with communities to identify packaging solutions suited to local conditions, culture and stages of economic development.
“The impacts are social, economic and environmental,” Pellegrino said. “Entire communities benefit from having better-established food value chains.”
The day is also intended to create a more credible discussion of packaging’s environmental impact. Pellegrino said the predominantly business-to-business packaging industry has had few opportunities to communicate directly with consumers – or to hear what they expect from it.
“World Packaging Day is an opportunity to celebrate how packaging enables modern life, but it is also a time to acknowledge that we need to continue evolving,” she said.
That evolution requires participation from brand owners, packaging companies, governments, educators, consumers, municipalities and recyclers. Priorities include strengthening recycling systems, improving disposal education and ensuring appropriate collection and processing pathways are available.
Rather than stage one central event, the WPO is encouraging locally relevant activities connected by its mission of improving quality of life through better packaging. Companies, universities, schools and other organisations can register initiatives through the World Packaging Day website and use #WorldPackagingDay, enabling the WPO to assess participation and build the program in future years.
Pellegrino said the platform could ultimately support wider conversations about accessibility, inclusion, food waste and what consumers regard as good or poor packaging performance.
The first World Packaging Day gives the industry an opportunity to present a fuller account of packaging’s value. Its longer-term credibility, however, may depend as much on listening to society as explaining its own position.
