Flexible packaging has delivered clear benefits to the food and consumer goods industries, from lower packaging and food costs to reduced food waste and carbon footprint. But its environmental impact at end of life cannot be overlooked, Siddhesh Kadam, chairman, Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB), said at the 13th Specialty Films & Flexible Packaging Global Summit in Mumbai.
For Kadam, the sustainability debate around flexible packaging is no longer about whether the material has benefits. It clearly does. The more difficult question is what happens to the package after its job is done.
Speaking at the 13th Specialty Films & Flexible Packaging Global Summit in Mumbai, Kadam acknowledged the role of flexible packaging in reducing food costs, food waste and carbon footprint. But he also pointed to the visible consequences when packaging fails to enter an effective waste-management system.
His recent experience at Mumbai’s Juhu Beach provided a stark example. “On an average during monsoon, the amount of trash reaches 180 tonnes per day,” he said. Among the waste he saw were milk pouches, shampoo sachets and chips packaging.
For Kadam, the issue cannot simply be attributed to manufacturers. “I am not blaming anybody,” he said, stressing that manufacturers, policymakers, local bodies and consumers all have responsibilities.
But the industry, he suggested, can do more than manufacture packaging and leave its end-of-life management to someone else. “Say 30% is getting recycled. What happens to the remaining 70%? Where does it go?” he said, referring to the recycling gap. The challenge, in his view, is not merely to increase recycling capacity but to understand where packaging actually goes.
That makes traceability an increasingly important issue. Kadam recalled his experience in the Netherlands, where he encountered concerns around recycling facilities shutting down because they were not receiving enough material. Packaging was being produced, he noted, but the recyclers could not always establish where it went.
“What I am manufacturing, where is it going? Am I able to trace it?” he asked. This question has direct implications for packaging design. If the industry is serious about improving recovery, Kadam believes recyclability needs to be considered much earlier in the process. He specifically pointed to the industry’s movement from multilayer structures towards monomaterial solutions.
“I would also urge all manufacturers to come up with a design, come up with a technology, and emphasize research and development on how we can shift from multilayer to monolayer,” he said.
Kadam’s argument is not for environmental considerations at the expense of business. He recognized that profitability and cost efficiency remain essential, particularly for an industry that supports significant employment. But he cautioned that economic gains cannot be separated from long-term environmental planning.
There is also a role for the industry in changing consumer behavior. Kadam suggested that manufacturers could support campaigns that tell consumers what to do with packaging once it has been used, rather than leaving disposal entirely to the consumer.
His proposed approach is deliberately simple: ownership of waste should not end at the point of sale. “Flexible packaging cannot be just flexible in physical terms. It has to be flexible in terms of adapting to zero waste as well,” Kadam said.
For an industry built around making packaging lighter, thinner and more efficient, the next challenge may be to make the journey after consumption just as efficient – by connecting packaging design, collection, traceability and recycling into one chain.