More than 450 professionals from 357 companies belonging to 18 industrial sectors met on 5 and 6 July in a hybrid conference on the future Royal Decree on Packaging and Packaging Waste that ITENE organised in Madrid with the collaboration of Hispack and that, in its online version, had more than 300 attendees connected synchronously in different sessions of the event.

A total of 19 speakers, 17 of them external, took part in these two days. Among them, Margarita Ruiz, Deputy Director General of Circular Economy of the Ministry for Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge (MITECO), who presented the Royal Decree in the technical version that is in Brussels and anticipated that the Government expects the text to be approved before the end of 2022.

 

 

The great interest generated by this event shows that, due to the new plans, strategies and laws that regulate this area, such as the Waste and Contaminated Soil Act, approved in April, we are experiencing a paradigm shift in the world of packaging, a transformation that will undoubtedly mark a before and after and that will have an impact on the entire value chain.

 

In the case of the Royal Decree, five key aspects are affected: prevention, reuse, recyclability, compostability and the introduction of recycled content in packaging. But, of all of these, which were the challenges and needs that were the focus of this debate?

On the one hand, the need to raise public awareness and increase collaboration along the entire value chain. Linked to this is also the need to increase the availability of recycled material. On the other hand, the establishment of new packaging reuse systems or circuits, and also the creation of new extended producer responsibility systems (EPRS) that include not only household packaging, but also commercial and industrial packaging, as stipulated in the Royal Decree.

 

These are just some of the broad outlines, but the required transformation addresses multiple factors. Therefore, in these times of change, it is more necessary than ever to have accurate and updated information, to analyse it with technical rigour and to foster the collaboration and debate of all the actors involved, including, of course, the State and Autonomous Administrations.

It is in this scenario where ITENE, as a research centre that generates knowledge and technology, is playing again an essential role by offering meeting points for the whole industry and also for the Administration in which we analyse these challenges but, above all, we share the technological solutions already available or those that are being worked on through R&D in areas such as the development of new materials or recycling technologies, whether mechanical, chemical or enzymatic. Along with this, technical consultancy, testing services and, of course, information, training and networking events are the mechanisms we have at our disposal to accompany companies in this transition.

 

This has been, in fact, the third conference organised by ITENE on this Royal Decree -we held the previous one last November, also in a hybrid way from Madrid-, and of course it will not be the last one: the next one will take place once we know the final text through the BOE (Official State Gazette). Because information and debate promote understanding and collaboration, allow us to anticipate changes and make it possible to meet the established objectives.