Packaging New Zealand are pleased to announce that entries are now open for their annual Scholarship program for 2019. The annual Packaging Scholarship enables one lucky packaging technologist, designer or engineer in New Zealand the opportunity to complete a Diploma in Packaging Technology to the value of $9,000. The Diploma of Packaging Technology is offered through the Australian Institute of Packaging (AIP); the peak professional body for packaging education and training in Australasia.

According to Harry Burkhardt, President of Packaging New Zealand, ‘the association is extremely proud to be able to offer the scholarship to a New Zealand packaging professional each year.’

“The packaging industry is dynamic and diverse, offering career opportunities across a wide scope of disciplines. Packaging New Zealand has been representing businesses in the packaging industry in New Zealand since 1992 and recognises that investment in the packaging industry starts with in its people. We strongly encourage everyone in the industry to apply for this scholarship.” Mr Burkhardt said.

“The Diploma in Packaging Technology is a Level 5 qualification which is internationally recognised for those wishing to pursue a career in the packaging industry or for those who are already in the industry and who wish to extend their knowledge and expertise. The Diploma in Packaging Technology prepares students to take responsibility for packaging operations at any level through the supply chain. The qualification is comprehensive and provides an opportunity to study the principles of packaging, packaging materials and packaging processes.” he said.

WHO AM I?

Diploma in Packaging Technology students are from a variety of backgrounds and disciplines, and are typically experienced practitioners or managers in technical, sales/marketing, QA, purchasing, engineering or design.

WHAT’S IN IT FOR ME?

Completion of the Diploma in Packaging Technology demonstrates your commitment to your career and to the industry. Delegates who successfully complete the Diploma are equipping themselves for senior positions within the packaging industry.

Entries are now open for the 2019 Packaging New Zealand Scholarship with submissions closing on the 8 March. The winner of the Scholarship will be announced at the 2019 Packaging Innovation & Design Awards; which will be held at the SOFITEL Wentworth, Sydney on the 30^th of April.

To find out more please email pida@aipack.com.au or download the criteria and entry form below:

.

DOWNLOAD CRITERIA

.

DOWNLOAD ENTRY FORM
.

The Australian Institute of Packaging (AIP) recently ran their new Sustainable Packaging Design Training course in Auckland with over 40 people in attendance. The course provided attendees with a better understanding of the practical guidelines and criteria needed to design and develop sustainable packaging including the Sustainability Hierarchy of Reduce, Reuse then Recycle and the Circular Economy approach to packaging and the environment.

As part of the course, attendees also visited the Visy Recycling Material Recovery Facility (MRF) to expose participants to the realities of a working MRF facilities, their equipment, limitation and material handling issues. The participants were able to get an understanding of what is and is not separated out for possible recycling in NZ, and why.

The level of interest is so high within AIP’s NZ members that a second course date will be confirmed shortly. A huge thank you must go out to Nick Baker and the wonderful team at Visy Recycling who generously hosted the MRF visit and the training course. The AIP, in conjunction with Packaging New Zealand, look forward to holding the course again in the near future.

If you would like to be advised when the next course will be held please contact us.

The Australian Institute of Packaging (AIP) recently ran 3x new educational seminars on packaging for over 600 people at the inaugural ProPak Philippines trade show. Powered by ProPak Asia, ProPak Philippines was truly the first-of-its-kind food, drink and pharmaceutical focused international trade exhibition for the regions rapidly expanding processing & packaging industries.

The AIP educational program was developed and run by Ralph Moyle, FAIP, CPP, in conjunction with the organisers, and was designed to help businesses in the region to better understand packaging and the important role it plays in their business.

The three sessions covered:

1.  Understanding the value of Sustainable & Save Food Packaging to your business
2. Understanding Packaging Economics & Product Life Extension Seminar
3. A better understanding of the value and benefits to introducing new and innovative automated packaging systems into your business workshop.

According to Ralph Moyle ‘The attendance was so high that the room was expanded twice on the first day and the seminar and workshop relocated to a larger room on the second day. Such a high-level of interest in the sessions was a true indicator that the local Philippines packaging community is eager for knowledge and training,’

“I was so pleased to see such a higher percentage of attendees were female which is a true reflection of the diversity within the packaging industry in The Philippines. I also found that the nature of questions we received over the three days was the same as we are asked from packaging technologists and designers over in Australia or New Zealand. Questions around how to design Fit-for-Purpose packaging, how to move to sustainable packaging, trying to understand the recycling side of packaging design within their country regulations, how to extend shelf life and to ensure that food isn’t wasted were high on everyone’s agenda. It is important to note that not one of these issues are limited to The Philippines and it is evident that the AIP must continue to provide education on these topics across the ASEAN Region, as these are global issues that we must continue to discuss collectively.”

“We were also pleasantly surprised at how much interest there was in The Philippines for all of the AIP’s other educational offerings and there is a thirst for knowledge in the region that is extremely encouraging. The Institute has a responsibility now to ensure that we work with the local packaging organisations to develop a strong educational program that meets the industries needs in the future,” Mr Moyle said.

“To be able to assist with upskilling the Food and Beverage industries over there, train more packaging technologists and encourage people to consider attaining their Certified Packaging Professional designation would be a great achievement for the AIP in the region,”

When asked what they were hoping to learn from the AIP program the majority of attendees indicated that they wanted to…

“Improve their level of packaging knowledge.”

“Gain access to global packaging trends.”

“Understand more about the fundamentals of packaging.”

“Improve their understanding of what is needed to design Sustainable and Save Food Packaging.”

“Achieve a better understanding of how to improve shelf life extension for their products.”

“Access to packaging training and knowledge from a globally recognised association like the AIP.”

“Please allow me to congratulate you and your team for the wonderful courses you have prepared. Not only are they very relatable, they are such an eye opener for better approaches for various industries. I hope that we will see more educational activities such as these from the AIP in the future in The Philippines. Thank you and more power to AIP!”

The AIP looks forward to developing more educational offerings for The Philippines and will also be working with the organisers of ProPak Philippines to develop a new educational program for the 2020 trade show. ProPak Philippines 2020 is scheduled for 6 to 8 February.

https://propakphilippines.com/ppkp/2020/en/index.asp

The Australian Institute of Packaging (AIP) and Packaging New Zealand are pleased to introduce a new Accessible Packaging Design category to the annual Packaging Innovation & Design Awards program. The Accessible Packaging Design Special Award is designed to recognise packaging that is accessible, intuitive, easy-to-open and innovative and is in partnership with Arthritis Australia and Arthritis New Zealand.

Packaging that is accessible and easy-to-open empowers consumers, provides convenience and allows you to grow your market share by meeting changing consumer needs. It is not only the ageing population that have issues with difficult to open packaging; it is also people with disabilities, arthritis sufferers and even children. Ease of Use design should be an integral part of your packaging.

According to Andrew Mills, Chief Executive Officer, Arthritis Australia ‘Consumers living with arthritis have often described what the many different impacts of this chronic condition are, but interestingly, hard-to-open packaging is one of the things that makes them feel disempowered.’

“The experience of struggling with difficult-to-open packaging can be physically painful and emotionally draining to them, especially when trying to open the daily staples, such as milk, jam jars or yogurt tubs. Accessible packaging is vital to providing consumers with independence, who should be able to prepare meals for their families without a battle with packaging,” Mr Mills said.

“The Accessible Packaging Design Special Award is designed to recognise those manufactures and brand owners who go above and beyond with their packaging designs and who are improving lives through improved accessibility,”

“Although there is currently no cure for arthritis, both Arthritis Australia and Arthritis New Zealand know that packaging is something we can work with industry, to improve that will have a huge positive daily benefit for all consumers. We know that consumers in both our countries face many of the same struggles, so it’s important to partner together on this important award initiative and we encourage everyone to enter.” Mr Mills said.

Philip Kearney, Chief Executive Officer, Arthritis New Zealand added that ‘We hear regularly, not just from people with arthritis, but from people of all ages and backgrounds that hard to open packaging makes them think twice about what they purchase, and this trend will only increase as more people are affected by arthritis.’

“As this number grows consumers will become more selective in their purchases and most will look for products that makes their day to day lives easier. From a brand perspective this is an important element for all manufacturers and suppliers to consider.” Mr Kearney said.

“Arthritis New Zealand wants to take constructive steps to encourage industry to make accessibility of packaging a must have and this has led us to co-sponsor the important award. Arthritis New Zealand will be actively promoting good packing design to the 670,000 people with arthritis in New Zealand.” He said.

Research from Arthritis Australia in 2018 shows that:

• All consumers struggle with packaging, but the growing ageing population, consumers with disabilities, arthritis sufferers and children are impacted the most.
• 44% of consumers struggle with packaging every day.
• 92% of consumers have spilt or damaged a product when trying to open the packaging.
• When consumers experience hard-to-open packaging: 56% Look for the product but in a different type of packaging. 21% Look at buying a competitor’s product.
• 65% of consumers have had to wait for someone to come and open packaging for them.
• 1-in-2 Australians have injured themselves opening packaging – including deep cuts and chipped teeth.
• 89% of consumers are currently feeling frustrated or furious with packaging.
• 67,000 people in the UK visited hospitals casualty departments every year due to an accident involving food and drink packaging.

Entries are now open for the 2019 inaugural Accessible Packaging Design Special Award and will close on the 8 March. Entry forms and criteria are available on http://aipack.com.au/education/pida/2019-pida-submissions-and-criteria/

The Australian Institute of Packaging (AIP) held their annual Foodbank Hamper Packing Day on Friday where they packed 300x Ladies Hampers & 1000x Family Hampers for those in need at Christmas. All of the items were either donated or attained through fundraising by the packaging and supply chain industries. Everything from the fabulous Christmas Boxes custom made by Orora, to the lining for the boxes from Woolcool, the snacks on the day from Primo to the handmade cards with personalised messages, HP donating a raffle prize to someone knitting 300 pairs of gloves to All Purpose Transport always helping with the logistics year on year; everyone helped make the hampers possible.

According to Nerida Kelton, Executive Director of the AIP, ‘Over 200 people volunteered from as far as South Australia and as young as two to be a part of the AIP’s favourite day of the year. The AIP is proud that we have played a major role in helping pack hampers to the value of $170,000 this year and that over the last eight years the team has packed close to 8000 hampers to the value of $900,000 for Foodbank to be able to give to people at Christmas time. To all of the people and companies who donated goods, funds or volunteered their time to pack hampers, we truly thank you,” Mrs Kelton said.

“As this is a national program the AIP would love to hear how other companies and staff would like to help us grow this program in 2019. Whilst the packing day is held in Queensland we encourage everyone across Australia and NZ to get behind this program; either by collecting items with your staff during the year, fundraising, companies donating much-needed items for the hampers or just volunteering on the day.” she said.

The AIP acknowledges long-terms partners Kimberly Clark, Colgate, Ego Pharmaceuticals and OfficeMax who are always there to assist by donating goods for both hampers. They also welcomed Unilever and Wins Up Australia this year, who generously donated much-needed personal hygiene products that are so important to the ladies hampers. SMC Australia|New Zealand, Fromm Packaging, Fibre King, AGITO and APPMA all kindly donated towards the purchase of items for the family packs.

2018 AIP Foodbank Christmas Hamper Packing – Wrap Up

2018 AIP Foodbank Christmas Hamper Packing – Ladies Hampers

2018 AIP Foodbank Christmas Hamper Packing – Family Hampers

Over the last seven years, our industry has packed over 6500 hampers to the value of in excess of $700,000 for people in need, with all of the items either donated, or the funds raised by the Association and the wider industry. The AIP invites you, your staff, colleagues and families to come and help us pack the hampers on the 7th of December in Brisbane, Queensland. All ages are invited to attend this special event with the oldest volunteer to date being 85 and the youngest 5. Help the AIP make a difference in someone else’s life this holiday season.

http://aipack.com.au/event-registration/?ee=96

Over 30 WPO Member countries were represented during the week; a week which consisted of an International Green Packaging Summit hosted by CEPI, World Packaging Organisation Board Meetings, judging for the WorldStar Packaging Awards, WPO Sustainability, Education and Marketing committee meetings, an informative site tour of the Labthink main head office and networking events with the local packaging industry. The week was made all the more memorable with the generous sponsorship from Labthink who celebrated their 30^th anniversary this year and who looked after the WPO Board Members for the entire week.

International Green Packaging Summit

With over 300 people in attendance the International Green Packaging Summit covered topics such as Sustainable Packaging, Food Waste, Save Food Packaging Design, Packaging and the Circular Economy, Green Packaging, Energy and more. Pierre Pienaar FAIP, CPP, President of the WPO and AIP Education Director opened the conference and helped set the scene for the global packaging industry.

The local packaging community had the unique opportunity to hear from a number of WPO representatives which enabled them to attain a global understanding of these most important topics. Pierre’s presentation also highlighted how the WPO is a key link in accessing the wider global packaging community.

I was personally interested in hearing about the Green Development Strategy for China and how companies like Alibaba have a ‘2020 green logistics blueprint’, Beijing INCOM have developed the intelligent packaging recycling machines, how green packaging has replaced packaging as a necessity in China and the importance of working together globally to develop a more sustainable packaging future.

Other takeaways from the Green Packaging Summit were:

• Plastics has taken 150 years to manipulate this planet
• Should we consider global rebates for collection of packaging materials? What true value-added incentives are there for companies?
• What is the sweet spot for creation of optimal Sustainable Packaging Design?
• Is the current approach and definition for circular economy too narrow? How do we also discuss repurposing?
• Packaging recyclability does have an end of life and we need to review what happens once packaging can no longer be recycled.
• It is critical that we must be able to measure the positive (protection) of food in packaging.
• This is a global problem, not a country problem and we must all work together to find the solutions.

A highlight of this event was when our very own Packaging Innovation & Design Award Winners Fresh Technologies/Sealed Air and Woolcool were recognised as Best-Practice Save Food Packaging Designs. A proud moment I must say to know that 300 people from the packaging industry in China heard about two amazing innovations from Australia and New Zealand and that they were being recognised globally.

World Packaging Organisation (WPO) Committee Meetings

One day of the WPO biannual meetings is focused on committee meetings that discuss education, sustainability and marketing. These meetings allow all of the country members from across the globe to discuss their own initiatives, learn from others and also develop global strategies for the WPO.

A key outcome from the education meeting included the AIP becoming the liaison between the IoPP in the US and all WPO member countries rolling out the global Certified Packaging Professional (CPP) Program for their region. I was asked to be the point of contact for each country rollout due to the work the AIP has already undertaken over the last few years for our own CPP program. I am pleased to advise that we have already started work with Nigeria and South Africa on their programs. Countries to follow will include Spain, Brazil, Turkey and Kenya. The long-term objective is to have all WPO Member countries encouraging their local members to attain the Certified Packaging Professional designation which will ultimately lift the level of professionalism, skills and expertise globally for packaging designers and technologists. We look forward to seeing the growth of this program across the world.

An outcome from the Sustainability committee meeting is that the AIP will be working on the development of the Save Food & Sustainable Packaging Design Pavilion at Interpack 2020 with the wider team led by Antro Säilä from Finland. As the AIP have led the development of Save Food Packaging Design Awards globally it is only apt that we have been given the opportunity to contribute to the new pavilion layout, design and case studies posters for the Save Food program. This is an exciting project that I look forward to reporting further on as it progresses.

World Packaging Organisation (WPO) Board Meeting

The 101^st WPO Board Meeting was only the second meeting that I have attended as the ANZ Board Member so it was great to see such passion and genuine love for packaging across the globe. Even though I am new to the Board I was invited to present the ideas from the Sustainability Committee regarding the Interpack Save Food & Sustainable Packaging Design pavilion which was a great personal development moment.

Much was discussed during the board meeting covering everything from global education training programs, the roll out of the CPP program, improvements to the WorldStar Packaging Awards, the plans for Interpack 2020, speaking opportunities for WPO Board members and a calendar view of packaging activities across the globe. The WPO now has 54-member countries and continues to grow and expand their reach and has a great Public Relations and Communications program to ensure that not only the WPO’s activities and programs are being recognised and promoted wherever possible, but also the member countries.

WorldStar Packaging Awards Judging

What was possibly the longest and most difficult day during the week was the judging for the WorldStar Packaging Awards. As a first time judge I soon realised that all of the entries have actually been recognised by experts within their fields in their domestic awards programs and are already winners of innovative packaging designs. The depth of entries and the amazing innovations I saw during the judging were extremely encouraging and I look forward to speaking about some of the stand outs once the judging has been finalised.

China National Export Commodities Packaging Research Institute (CEPI)

I would like to extend the AIP’s sincerest thanks to WPO Member Country and host for the week, China National Export Commodities Packaging Research Institute (CEPI), as without them the event would not have been so successful. CEPI was founded in 1974 approved by the former Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation.

CEPI is responsible for packaging technology research, packaging standardisation, packaging experiment and testing, packaging designing and consulting, international cooperation, green packaging alliance, military packaging services, information and consulting and the academic journal ‘Green Packaging’.

Packaging and Environmental Standardisation is a key component of CEPI’s work and they continue to develop research of packaging standardisation and draft national and industrial standards as well as undertake the domestic and international operation of standardisation in the domain of packaging. A special thank you must go to our host Sabrina Zhaou and her amazing team who were there for all us at every turn.

I have taken a lot away from the week and what struck me most is that we have so much to learn from each other and developed countries like Australia and New Zealand, have a responsibility to help the developing countries wherever possible with their packaging education and training. I truly believe that the global packaging community can be stronger if we work together. I look forward to being a long-term contributor to the WPO and I am excited about AIP’s future contributions to the global packaging community. I encourage all of you to join the WPO Linked In, Facebook and Instagram social media pages so that you too can become a part of the global packaging community.

Nerida Kelton MAIP
Executive Director – Australian Institute of Packaging (AIP
ANZ Board Member – World Packaging Organisation (WPO)

The Australian Institute of Packaging (AIP) is pleased to advise that the Institute has now joined the Friends of Champions 12.3 global movement as part of the AIP’s commitment to the SAVE FOOD Initiative by FAO, the National Food Waste Strategy, and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 12.3. While Champions 12.3 is the group of CEOs leading progress to achieve the UN’s SDG Target 12.3, there are many organisations that are part of the movement to halve food loss and waste. The Friends of Champions 12.3 network features companies and organisations that are contributing to the worldwide momentum on this issue like the Australian Institute of Packaging (AIP).

According to Liz Goodwin, Senior Fellow and Director, Food Loss and Waste at World Resources Institute ‘“I am very pleased to welcome the Australian Institute of Packaging (AIP) to the Friends of Champions 12.3 network. Their involvement, along with dozens of other companies and organisations around the globe, is contributing to a worldwide movement to halve food loss and waste by 2030. Everyone has a role to play, and now is the moment to step up our collective action.”

According to Nerida Kelton, Executive Director of the Australian Institute of Packaging, joining the Friends of Champions 12.3 program allows the AIP to be a part of a community that can collectively provide education and training on the role that packaging plays in minimising food waste and loss globally.

“From the AIP’s perspective it is critical that all future food packaging incorporates Save Food Packaging design elements and criteria that minimise food waste where possible. It is important that all packaging designers and technologists are incorporating global Save Food Packaging criteria and standards at development stage of the packaging design lifecycle,”

“The AIP looks forward to contributing to the Friends of Champions program and helping to create a global community for positive change in Fighting Food Waste.” she said.

Find out more…

On Thursday 6 September 2018, a small group of Australian Institute of Packaging (AIP) members attended a site tour at CHEP’s Service Centre in Erskine Park, Sydney.

Hosted by AIP at CHEP’s Service Centre in Erskine Park. Lachlan Feggans, Senior Manager, Sustainability for CHEP; and Mathew Karbowiak Service Centre Manager, provided the group with the opportunity to learn more about CHEP’s pallet reconditioning operations, the role of CHEP’s National Logistics Control Centre; and the value CHEP provides through the circular supply chain.

Joanne Cockerill, AIP Central Region Chair, said, “CHEP’s focus on safety is impressive, with key recent actions including redesigning the flow of its site operations to reduce the number of vehicle to people crossings from over 20 down to three, and pre-shift exercise warm-ups reduced strain injuries.

“To reduce manual handling risks, the conveyors have been updated to turn pallets around and over to eliminate heavy lifting of pallets by the operators. The speed of the maintenance and quality checks of each pallet was impressive, both manually and automatically.

“A highlight of the tour was the accuracy and level of the detail the pallet sensors had to be able to pick up when packaging remains on the pallet. We learnt that CHEP Australia continues to leverage global best practise.” said Ms Cockerill.

Just this week CHEP picked up two awards at the Australian Packaging Covenant Organisation (APCO) Awards; the 2018 Outstanding Achievement in Sustainable Packaging Operations and also the Logistics Industry Sector Award.

Mathew Karbowiak provided a tour of site operations and the National Logistics Control Centre system, which uses detailed real-time information from multiple sources, including video feeds from CHEP yards and live network data to predict whether a delivery of CHEP equipment will be impacted by events in the network.

“Using our data, network, expertise and knowledge in logistics management, our team designed a sophisticated logistics management system that improves the level of service we can provide our customers.

“The Logistics Control Centre not only provides a greater level of network visibility, but also features mechanisms to help manage issues as they arise. If a delivery is impacted by issues such as traffic congestion, the system triggers an alert which assists the team in proactively managing the situation. In the event of a delay, the team is significantly better enabled to quickly contact customers with a new expected delivery time.” said Mr Karbowiak.

Attendees had the opportunity to learn more about the CHEP sustainability model

and goals. Lachlan Feggans presented the numerous sustainability projects CHEP has achieved with their partners, one of which is the partnership with Foodbank.

Some of these projects include delivering on zero product waste to landfill, 100% of CHEP Australia’s wood is sustainably sourced, and an end of life recycling program by sharing and reusing CHEP platforms. Through this, customers prevented 2.6m tonnes of CO2 from being generated, 4,100 mega litres of water being used, 1.6m m3 of wood being used, 1.7m trees being cut down and 1.4m tonnes of waste being generated.

Ms Cockerill concluded, “It was an exciting and interesting history to discover CHEP originated in Australia in 1946 after WWII.”

Discovering the history of CHEP

From its origins in Australia in 1946, CHEP has played a crucial role as a global supply chain solutions partner, supporting retailers, manufacturers and transporters to move and handle goods cost-effectively and sustainably across Australia, and around the world.

CHEP has operations in 60+ countries, employs approximately 12,000 people and has a pool of approximately 610 million pallets, bins, crates and containers.

CHEP have a wide range of industry platforms and solutions – more than 300 million shared and reused by growers, manufacturers, distributors and retailers, worldwide. Through these,

CHEP enables customer’s supply chain to meet their profitability and sustainability goals, without having to compromise one for the other.

While CHEP helps customer to improve their bottom line they also help reduce the impact on the environment including; carbon footprint, consumption of natural resources, and waste sent to landfills.

AIP Role of Packaging in Minimising Food Waste Training Course

The AIP had a full house for the new half-day training course on the Role of Packaging in Minimising Food Waste with attendees from Frucor, Fonterra, Danone, Confoil, Multivac,Goodman Fielder, Stratex, NCI Packaging, FreshPork, Snell Packaging and Totally Wrapt Packaging. The course provided participants with an introduction to the seriousness of food waste in Australia and New Zealand and how we can all make a difference as team members of the product-packaging design process to this issue. It also covered packaging design criteria for Best-Practice Save Food Packaging Design developments that should be considered. With hands-on and practical case studies participants were able to learn how designing packaging to save food actually saves food.  Attendees then had the opportunity to visit the AIP stand to see the latest round of Save Food Packaging and Sustainable Packaging Design winners and their innovations.

Key takeaways from the attendees included:

• ‘A new focus on what our business needs to do to improve our packaging design’.
• ‘A better understanding of the true benefits that packaging plays in minimising food waste’
• ‘To try and re-design packaging to reduce food loss and waste’
• ‘A better awareness that packaging does have a role to play in relation to food loss and must be taken into account when designing new packaging’
• ‘A reminder that packaging technologists must include Lifecycle Analysis with all of their design’
• ‘A clearer view that better packaging is a solution to reducing food waste’
• ‘Time to review our packaging designs’
• ‘Is there a sweet spot for best-practice packaging designs for saving food waste?’
• ‘The industry needs to start using the AIP developed Save Food Packaging Design guidelines’

AIP Seminar on Fighting Food Waste, Save Food and Sustainable Packaging Design

It was standing room only at the two-hour seminar with 10 speakers covering a broad range of topics including Fighting Food Waste, the new Fight Food Waste Cooperative Research Centre, Save Food and Sustainable Packaging Design, what packaging does – not what packaging is, the Australasian Recycling Label and the PREP Tool. Speakers included Deborah Manning, Chief Executive Officer, KiwiHarvest, Scott Porter, NZ Sales Manager, Sealed Air Corporation, Don Railton, Operations Compliance Manager, Fresh Group, Apoorv Mehrotra, Account Manager, Oji Fibre Solutions, Ben Rennell, Founder, Feed My Furbaby. Lars Ljung, Special Projects Coordinator, Planet Protector Packaging, Sharon Humphreys, Executive Director, Packaging New Zealand, Alejandra Laclette, Recycling Label Program Manager, Planet Ark Environmental Foundation, Simon Musgrave, Manager, Health Brands Trust and Keith Chessell, Director, Sustainable Packaging Design. The seminar was run by the AIP, in conjunction with key NZ industry association Packaging New Zealand and was the most well-attended at the show.

Key takeaways from the attendees included:

• ‘Start looking at what packaging DOES, not what packaging is.’
• KiwiHarvest is doing an amazing job and the issues of Food Waste and Food Insecurity in NZ cannot be ignored.’
• ‘I have a better view of the current issues in Sustainable Packaging Design.’
• ‘Great to see some New Zealand companies who have taken the leap into Save Food & Sustainable Packaging Design.’
• ‘That once packaging is designed you need to start looking at the next step in improvements; the journey never ends.’
• ‘That New Zealand has many issues with lack of recycling facilities and capabilities that need to be addressed by government and councils.’
• How do we invest in designing Sustainable Packaging Design when there are no facilities available in NZ to recycle them at end-of-life?’
• What is the difference between home compostable and industrial compostable?

AIP exhibition stand showcases PIDA Award winners

The AIP had a joint stand with Packaging New Zealand that showcased all the 2018 Packaging Innovation & Design Award winners for both Australia and New Zealand and the WorldStar Packaging Awards. The Save Food Packaging & Sustainable Packaging Design winners were well-received with a number of the 2018 winners being New Zealand companies who also spoke at the seminar. The exhibition stand achieved heavy foot-traffic during the three days.

The Australian Institute of Packaging (AIP) looks forward to being a partner of FoodTech PackTech 2020.