In February 2023, the OECD published its workshop report on flexible food-grade plastic packaging. The workshop was held as a follow-up discussion building on the document “A Chemicals Perspective on Designing with Sustainable Plastics: Goals, Considerations and Trade-offs” from December 2021 (FPF reported). Three primary goals were set for the workshop: (i) better understanding the difficulties in designing sustainable and flexible food-grade packaging from a chemical point of view, (ii) discussing policies currently in place, and (iii) identifying future policy options.
The main challenges the involved industries are facing were identified prior to the workshop, and during the workshop, several additional industry representatives shared their related insights.
Multiple government agencies, including the Research Institute of Sweden, Japan’s Ministry of Environment, the European Commission, the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment in the Netherlands, and the US Environmental Protection Agency, put forward their proposed policy strategies for incentivizing more sustainable design in flexible food-grade packaging.
Many of the remaining gaps were identified, and avenues for future work were noted. The report concluded that the field and its challenges are highly international and complex; thus, multiple policies across the whole life cycle are required. Additionally, chemical transparency and safety continue to be prime concerns for the further development of a more circular economy.
Reference
OECD (February 2023). “Workshop report on flexible food-grade plastic packaging.”
