The 8th Speciality Film and Flexible Packaging Global Summit organized by Elite Plus Business Services at Hotel Sahara Star, Mumbai was a huge success. Held on 22-23 August 2019, the two-day summit attracted 1,370 delegates representing 510 companies from 21 countries. In attendance were some of the biggest names from the flexible packaging industry representing some of the leading packaging companies in the world. This year’s theme was ‘Growth with Sustainability.’ A large part of the summit’s agenda was devoted to sustainability and included eminent speakers from government policymakers and industry leaders. Technical presentations were spread over 9 business sessions and 3 panel discussions.
In the opening session of the first day, Vipul Shah of Reliance Industries in his keynote gave an overview of the circular economy and highlighted Reliance’s approach towards sustainability and all the innovative solutions that the company is implementing to optimally utilize plastic waste in a variety of applications. Ashok Chaturvedi, chairman of Uflex Limited, emphasized that MLP is 100% recyclable and shared how Uflex has been recycling all its in-house MLP waste quite successfully. David Clark of Amcor in his keynote spoke about the new ‘plastics economy global commitment’ to end plastic waste, and its impact on films and flexible packaging. Subhadra Rao of Yes Bank presented some interesting developments in global economy as well as geopolitical trends and India’s role. The opening session concluded with an address by Raghavendra Rao, secretary, Department of Chemicals and Petrochemicals, Government of India. In his address, Rao said that controlling or managing plastic waste is the right choice for the industry.
The second session comprised of two panel discussions about strategies for fulfilling EPR obligations and plastic waste management. In the panel discussion on fulfilling EPR obligations, leading brands shared their experiences and modus-operandi. ITC has targeted 21 lakh households to educate them on disposal of low-value plastics. About 12,000 metric tonne plastics have been sent by them to cement kilns. Nestle started Hildari movement for collecting used bags in Missouri hills and no longer plastic is going to landfills in Missouri. In the panel discussion on plastic waste management, leading waste collection and disposal start-ups shared their experiences.
The third session of the summit saw presentations from top executives of leading flexible packaging converters and packaging film manufacturers. Arup Basu of Huhtamaki PPL talked about Blueloop, Hutamaki’s initiative for recycling and reuse. Mohammed Nadeem, chief executive officer of Paharpur 3P also shared about his company’s effort at tackling on-site waste as well as effluent. Pankaj Poddar of Cosmo Films talked about making flexible packaging more sustainable and said that flexible packaging in itself is sustainable. CK Mishra, secretary, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Government of India said that flexible packaging is growing but at the same time has brought along many problems. He stressed that the industry should innovate and bring new sustainable solutions because as the economy grows, so will waste. The fourth and the fifth sessions on the first day were dedicated to technological trends in manufacturing and emerging packaging business strategies for 2020.
The second day saw a keynote address by RK Bajaj of Bureau of Indian Standard, who talked about Standards for sustainable packaging. Ajit Singh, chairman and co-founder of ACG Worldwide, in his keynote address informed the audience about the evolution of ACG Worldwide over the years and how the company became a successful Indian multinational company with operations in multiple locations globally.
The sixth session saw Nilesh Shah of ExxonMobil and Rajnish Mehta of Hindustan Petroleum speak about their company’s plans to service the packaging industry. The seventh and the eighth sessions were dedicated to the converting side of the business where representatives from some of the leading machine manufacturers such as Bobst, W&H, SP Ultraflex and Pelican, among others, spoke about the solutions they offer and what new innovations they are undertaking. The ninth and the final session dealt with inks, additives and adhesives.
