The world cannot do without packaging, but the world can use packaging more effectively and efficiently to meet the needs of people and to be environmentally sustainable.
So says the World Packaging Organisations’s general secretary Dr Carl Olsmats who is based in Sweden. “A sustainable society is a key challenge for all of us on planet earth,” he tells Packaging Magazine.
“In this context, the packaging sector must support a sustainable development for society as a whole. This challenge is addressed both in economical, social and environmental terms in the primary purpose of the WPO: ‘Better Quality Of Life Through Better Packaging For More People’.
WPO believes that we can help society learn to value the importance of packaging through effective education.
"By bringing together people, industry, and government in a constructive, productive way, Packaging will become respected as the vital tool that it undeniably is.”
Dr Olsmats who recently visited Australia, says the WPO’s mission is to improve quality of life through better packaging for more people.
“WPO runs the global packaging design awards program, WorldStar, to acknowledge and promote packaging excellence,” he relates. “WPO also promotes education through meetings and special activities such as sponsorship of education & training projects and workshops with a special focus on the needs in developing countries.”
“’Better quality of life’ as stated in the WPO’s purpose, isn’t just about this generation,” Dr Olsmats explains. "As defined by the Brundtland Commission, led by the former Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland, sustainable development is development that ‘meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.’"
"In the effort to carry forward the circle of sustainability, WPO aims to globally promote an increase in the positive economic, social and environmental impact of packaging on society along with advancement of packaging skills and expertise through education and expansion of international trade.”
Along with his role with the WPO, Dr Olsmats is a project manager in Sustainability & Foresight in the Packaging, Media & Materials Division with INNVENTIA AB (formerly STFI-Packforsk AB), a company that aims to boost business with science through pulp, paper, printing and packaging research.
Olsmats also has expertise in the area of logistics, having worked in the field with the Electrolux Group and specialised in foresight, logistics, sustainability and strategic related packaging issues.
He has held a number of different positions including both managerial and specialist roles in research and consultancy.
But Dr Olsmat’s PhD from Abo Akademi University in Turku, Finland, 2002 confirms his lifelong passion for packaging with a thesis titled: “The business mission of packaging — Packaging as a strategic tool for business development towards the future”.
“Packaging is used everywhere, by highly industrialised countries and developing nations alike,” Dr Olsmats says.
“Good Packaging is a most-important tool for the well-being and safety of people, and for successful commerce. Packaging contains, preserves, protects, transports, and communicates. We cannot survive without Packaging.”
According to Dr Olsmats, the dilemma is that as the world population increases and world-wide distribution chains become more sophisticated, the corresponding increase in the use of packaging has the potential to become as much a problem as a solution.
“In some parts of the world, some poorly informed people are actively campaigning for a strict reduction, and in some cases, elimination of packaging,” Olsmats says.
“This regression is based on a lack of understanding of the overall impact on society. Actually, packaging has tremendous resource-savings potential,” Olsmats asserts.
“Clearly, over-packaging consumes too many resources. Under-packaging allows for damage and spoilage of contents, also wasting resources. The goal is ‘right size’ packaging. It is a holistic view that balances the proper use of resources against the environmental, social, and financial needs of society.”
In Dr Olsmats view, the facts are clear. “The production of packaging materials consumes both natural and human resources,” he says. “The application of those materials further uses more valuable resources.
"Finally, the disposal of packaging materials into landfills, incinerators, and, inappropriately, on the sides of countless highways and roads as litter, also requires the utilisation of more valuable resources, many of which could have been used again, or differently."
Dr Carl Olsmats says there’s an undeniable transformation of values within the packaging community arising from the issue of sustainable packaging.
“This change in philosophy will bind together WPO with its goals in a new, more dynamic way,” he predicts. “And ultimately, the whole of society will benefit.
“WPO intends to bring this initiative forward for all members of the Packaging Community including, nonprofit educational groups, standards organisations, for-profit commercial ventures, and trade organisations. All will benefit from the efforts of WPO, its members and partners to educate others.
“Through these efforts, the packaging community will better understand the importance of global collaboration and teamwork in packaging development, application, reuse, recycle and recovery.
“Many packaging materials have not been thought of as renewable, at least until recently,” Dr Olsmats adds.
“With the introduction of the hypothesis of sustainable development, that pattern is changing dramatically. And so it is with Packaging too.
“The new model for packaging requires that sustainable methods and materials be employed whenever possible, and even where it may seem to be impossible,” Dr Olsmats says.
“Clearly, ‘reduce, reuse, recycle, recover’ are not just empty, idealistic words any longer. They are the basis for an operative, powerful model that will grow significantly over the next few years.
“For example, consider what is taking place in EU countries and other parts of the world today. Serious legislation is being passed that requires ‘cradle to cradle’ responsibility for all packaging materials. This legislation has the potential to cause serious increases in costs throughout the supply chain, ultimately harming the consumer and commerce, perhaps unnecessarily.
“So it is the responsibility of the packaging community to address these issues in practical ways that are economically, socially and environmentally sustainable. In some regions of the world, this goal may already have been partially achieved and may provide a good model for regions endeavoring to work through this issue.”
Dr Olsmats says the WPO believes that sustainable packaging will become so rooted in global culture that the word ‘sustainable’ will become redundant and no longer used in daily vocabulary.
“All packaging will become sustainable,” he says. “This new way of thinking plays well to WPO’s unique position in the packaging community.
"Sustainability means in principle that continuous improvement has to be applied to all packaging. There will always be a demand for training and education in order to accomplish this task.
“Society demands, without really knowing it, that packaging professionals ‘get it right’,” Dr Olsmats observes.
“Efficient and effective use of resources in packaging is essential to society’s aim to reach sustainability.
"The World Packaging Organization is committed to continuing to bring together many of the great minds within the packaging community as we work toward our goal of ‘Better Quality Of Life Through Better Packaging For More People’."
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