In 2020, 20 million tons of plastic packaging were produced in Europe of which about 40% or 8 million tons for food packaging. In 2018, however, recycling rates of plastic packaging waste in Europe ranged between 26 and 52%. Consequently, there is still much work to be done to reach the European targets by 2030. While the concept of circular food packaging has been taken up by various initiatives, its implementation remains limited due to the high degree of required cross-chain collaboration.
The need for such cross-chain collaboration is even more necessary taking into account other important trends in food packaging being the transition towards smart packaging in close relation with optimal logistics processes, traceability and shelf-life monitoring. To accelerate the transition towards sustainable food packaging, intense cross-sectorial cooperation along the whole food packaging chain (e.g., food processors, packaging suppliers, logistics, retailers, etc.), is essential.
Year established: 2022
The mission of the Partnership is to lower barriers for the agri-food and packaging industry to access and implement new sustainable food packaging innovations. This will support them to build new value chains, and thus facilitate and accelerate the European transition to sustainable food packaging. This Partnership is unique in Europe by building a strong cross-sector network between the quadruple helix actors of the European food packaging value chain.
Such cooperation has been proven successful in Flanders (BE), where a cross-sectoral collaboration was established in 2018 between Pack4Food (Coordinator), Flanders’ FOOD, Catalisti, VIL and SIM, to determine a joint vision and strategy regarding the ‘Food packaging of the future’. The consortium will build on this Flemish collaboration by adapting and scaling-up this roadmap to a European level, involving all relevant parties along the whole European food packaging value chain with the focus on sustainable food packaging.
The objective of this Thematic Smart Specialization Partnership is to establish a European collaboration in a quadruple helix structure between (i) regional supported clusters, (ii) company organizations representing the whole food packaging value chain (e.g., food and packaging companies, packaging machine suppliers, sorting- and recycling companies, and other relevant stakeholders), (iii) relevant RTO’s and (iv) consumer organizations. In addition, a European network of living labs will be set-up, as central player in the innovation ecosystem of this Partnership.
These living labs are innovation driven organizations that facilitate collaborative innovation between the different stakeholders in the food packaging value chain to develop, improve, test, validate and demonstrate new packaging technologies and innovations for the agri-food and packaging industry, and where relevant training sessions and workshops will be organized.
Sustainable Food Packaging in a Circular economy
Focussing on the 5R’s of food packaging: Refuse-Reduce-Reuse-Recycle-Renewable
Food Packaging, sustainability, circular food packaging
Value4Pack - Bridging investment opportunities to achieve the resilient European food packaging value chain. Value4Pack originates from the S3 Partnership Food Packaging with the aim of strengthening the capacity, competitiveness and resilience of stakeholders in the European food packaging value chain, in particular in less developed regions, and their ability to address societal, environmental and economic challenges. Value4Pack will boost innovation and investment capacity in the European food packaging value chain by building an interregional resilient innovations ecosystem between its relevant penta-helix actors (i.e. industry – RTO’s – investors – regional authorities – consumers and NGOs).
Weblinks:
Angelique Vandemoortele, Pack4Food: info@pack4food.be
Partner meetings:
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Value4Pack events:
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