Sustainable packaging at the conference sponsored by CCM and Legacoop Estense

Sustainable packaging: best practices for cooperation and the agrifood industry at the conference sponsored by CCM and Legacoop Estense

Reducing the growing amount of packaging waste and making packaging reusable, recyclable or compostable: these are the objectives of the new European Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PWRR), which will govern the transition of the packaging industry towards greater sustainability by 2030. To discuss the impact of the new regulations on the agrifood industry, CCM and Legacoop Estense organised a technical conference for Wednesday 9 October, which brought together all the main actors in the value chain, especially cooperatives: from industrial packaging manufacturers to agrifood producers – from fruit to cold cuts and cheese – and supermarket chains. The discussions focussed on the new regulations, and considered the best practices, strategies and ideas with which each segment of the value chain is preparing to take up the challenges and opportunities posed by them, and the significant changes they introduce for businesses, consumers and the environment.

“The PPWR is a formidable, and yet absolutely necessary, challenge if European industry is to move towards more sustainable production and consumption, reduce its environmental footprint and accelerate the transition to a circular economy,” said Davide Faietti, president of CCM, the Modena cooperative that has been a leader in packaging made from paper and other recyclable and compostable materials for over 50 years. “At CCM we have a proactive approach to the market, with innovation and sustainability key to our development strategies. It follows that we don’t want to find ourselves behind the wave in relation to these new regulations; we want to participate in the change, and we have thus sponsored – together with our professional association, Legacoop Estense – a technical conference to bring all stakeholders together at a single table. We are convinced that, if we can coordinate and share strategies along the entire value chain, we will be able to have a major impact in both economic and environmental terms.”

“As a professional association,” said Cristian Maretti and Ilaria Franchini, national president and local representative of Legacoop Agroalimentare respectively, “we are called to play a role in directing and building synergies and alliances between our member cooperatives, as well as supporting complex projects along the value chain, which leverage the commonalities between economic and environmental sustainability. The cooperative value chain has already proved its effectiveness in the area of re-use, as testified by the experience of CPR System, a cooperative which brings together the interests and requirements of fruit and vegetable producers, distributors and logistics companies, by producing, handling and recycling plastic packaging with folding sides and pallets, all as part of a circular economy model. We see the new regulations as a further spur to improve, to respond to the expectations of consumers and to global challenges, without however ignoring the fact that public policy also has a part to play: on the one hand by providing concrete instruments and resources to support businesses in their environmental and digital transition; and on the other by promoting the prompt adoption of regulations and guidelines, so to ensure consistent adoption of the regulations by different countries and avoid the risk of fragmentation and inefficiency.”

The conference, moderated by TRC journalist Pier Paolo Pedriali, started with opening remarks by the president of CCM, Davide Faietti and Andrea Benini, director for sustainability of GranTerre and Coop Alleanza 3.0. The morning session, featuring presentations by consortia in the value chains of the paper industry (Comieco, represented by its R&D director, Lorenzo Bono) and biodegradable plastics industry (Biorepack, represented by its president Marco Versari), both members of CONAI, threw light on the novel provisions of the new regulations; they were followed by Renata Pascarelli, quality director for Coop Italia, and Cinzia Linguerri, packaging director for Conad, who spoke on behalf of the supermarket sector and shared the two cooperatives’ innovative packaging management strategies, highlighting the sustainable practices they have adopted to reduce their environmental impact.

Over the afternoon, some of the leading agrifood companies from the Emilia-Romagna region spoke on the challenges introduced by the new regulations and their possible solutions, offering an overview of best practices: the speakers were Claudio Magnani, operations director of Apofruit; Stanislao Fabbrino, president and managing director of Fruttagel and managing director of Deco Industrie; and Marco Alberti, packaging R&D director of GranTerre. The final speaker was Cesare Vannini, procurement and R&D director of CCM, who spoke about innovative solutions in cellulose-based packaging.

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