It’s an honor to announce that our company has won the Carton Austria Award 2020. The jury award was given to the Manner Mini Mix gift box which was made by Cardbox Packaging Wolfsberg and also by Metsä Board as the cardboard manufacturer. It is also worth mentioning that this impressive construction was designed at Cardbox Packaging Pinkafeld.

With our weight-reduced PP/PET packaging, we were able to significantly reduce the proportion of plastic by using the removable carton. The packaging for meat, fish and ready meals is easy to recycle, provides a lot of space for your designs and was named one of 20 top innovations in the field of sustainable packaging.

As a result of the COVID-19 crisis, we have seen unprecedented disruption of the packaging supply chain, the result of which has made it very tough, and in some cases, impossible to meet customer demand. Some of the industry dynamics have resulted in under capacity and under supply. I will explain a few of the key dynamics happening.

There is a clear trend on the market to move away from plastic based packaging without compromising on consumer convenience and product safety. AR Packaging is leading the way in these developments and aims to be the first on the market with dry molded fibre trays and cutlery.

Georgia-Pacific has announced that it will make an investment of more than $145 million at its Darlington, South Carolina, Dixie plant that will expand plate and bowl making operations. This investment is based on customer and consumer demand for these well-known household products.

Trays from Bebo, a Berry Global company, are playing a key role in supporting Quorn Foods’ widely-publicised and highly-successful move to eliminate more than 297 tonnes of black plastic packaging from its supply chain. In addition to the change in material, Bebo has also worked on the further lightweighting of the trays.

Sustainability is a huge focus in the Pelliconi group. Marco Checchi, our CEO, absolutely wants us to respect the environment in every way possible and I think this is great. And this is also greater for a big company like Pelliconi: this kind of approach shows its huge effects both in short and long terms.

Together with the Paper Straw Co, BillerudKorsnäs has developed the first functional 180° U-Bend straw, made out of paper. The straw is made to be used for individual drink cartons such as juice, milk and water. The straw based on materials from sustainably sourced forests is also biodegradable, resulting in a positive impact on pollution and littering compared to plastic straws.

Waitrose & Partners launches its Italian ready meal range in the new fiber-based tray suited for both microwave and regular ovens. The new trays, called Fresh, are manufactured by the global food packaging specialist Huhtamaki, packed at Saladworks and the fiber used as the base material comes from the Swedish forest company Södra. The trays can be recycled, and they are also certified for home composting.

Nestlé has laid out its broader vision to achieve a waste-free future and announced a series of specific actions towards meeting its April 2018 commitment to make 100% of its packaging recyclable or reusable by 2025, with a particular focus on avoiding plastic-waste.