Co-organized by AINIA and AIMPLAS, the IV edition of this technology event of the plastics sector will take place on 29 and 30 May 2019.
By 2030, all plastic packaging placed on the EU market should be reusable or recyclable. The achievement of this objective gives rise to an unprecedented time of changes and a boost of technological innovation in the packaging, retail and consumer goods’ sectors.
The commitment to the circular economy, based on the principles of reducing, reusing and recycling, is a challenge for sustainability and waste management. In this sense, solutions are expected to find new materials for lasting reusable packages that allow a high-quality recycling but also safe and that make life easier.
Alternatives to conventional packages must involve sustainable options such as packages made from recycled materials and renewable or compostable sources. In these cases, the challenge is ensuring that they keep their barrier properties and other functionalities that provide a response to the preservation, quality, safety and logistic needs raised by the industry and retailers, as well as the convenience, easy use and waste management demanded by citizens.
Safety and sustainability will be key points towards the packaging of the future and for that reason they will be the focus of MeetingPack 2019, the main European meeting in plastic barrier packaging for food and beverages, under the title ‘Sustainability trends in barrier packaging: towards Objective H2030’, to be held at Escuela de Negocios Lluís Vives (Cámara de Comercio de Valencia) on 29 and 30 May 2019.
MeetingPack 2019, organized by AINIA y AIMPLAS, will foster the exchange of needs and solutions by bringing together material and packaging manufacturers, retailers and users from key factors like the food and beverage industries.
Five challenges of the packaging value chain
MeetingPack 2019, as in previous editions, will consist of a series of presentations divided into six sessions and will also have a networking and exhibition area where innovations of the main companies, sponsors and collaborators will be shown.
MeetingPack 2019 will tackle, through the experience of around thirty national and international speakers selected by the importance of their innovations and technological solutions, the five major sustainability and safety challenges that the food and beverage plastic packaging value chain will face:
• Innovations in new high-performance sustainable materials
• Sustainable films, sheets and trays. New multilayer products and guarantee of preservation and shelf life for those using multilayer products.
• Injected packages with lower environmental impact.
• The importance of ecodesign. How thanks to design we progress in the reduction of materials, in reusing and in packaging recycling.
• The challenge of logistics: sustainable packages and distribution chains.
According to Carlos Enguix, head of AINIA’s Packaging technologies department, ‘in MeetingPack 2019, new barrier solutions integrated into new types of biopolymers; bio-based, compostable and recycled materials; and coatings will be presented. The cutting-edge multilayer and monolayer packages with the barrier properties, films, sheets and trays developed under sustainability criteria will be also presented’.
According to Sergio Giménez, Business manager of AIMPLAS, ‘ecodesign will also be present thanks to particular examples and improvements in flexible and rigid packaging. We will see new manufacturing processes, ecolabels and tools to assess the sustainability of materials, packages and equipment. In short, plastics as a solution for the environment and the quality of life’.
MeetingPack 2019 will have an exhibition area, where the cutting-edge developments and solutions in sustainable barrier packaging will be displayed. In addition, the event will be an attractive networking opportunity for attendees to exchange ideas.
MeetingPack 2019 has just opened the call for speakers to select the most interesting speakers and innovations. Companies will also have the possibility of joining the event as sponsors.
MeetingPack 2019 will be held on 29 and 30 May 2019 at Escuela de Negocios Lluís Vives (Cámara de Comercio de Valencia). Av. Benjamin Franklin, 8 | 46980 (Paterna, Valencia, SPAIN) València Parc Tecnològic.
