Undaunted by the worldwide travel restrictions imposed by COVID-19, an interactive webinar has provided a timely opportunity to position and discuss the circularity of packaging and most especially multilayers before an online international audience of over a hundred participants.

Taking the place of a traditional project closing conference, Part 1 of the REFUCOAT interactive webinar From plastics to policy – Environmental and regulatory challenges related to bio-plastics, held on Tuesday May 5th, put its initial focus upon food waste issues and food shortage in relation to unsustainable consumption patterns. Inspiration was provided by keynote speaker Tristram Stuart, founder of the environmental campaigning organisation Feedback, and an international award-winning author, speaker, campaigner and expert on the environmental and social impacts of food.

Working in conjunction with her counterpart Lorena Rodriguez Garrida from the host REFUCOAT project and other event participants, MultiCycle co-ordinator Elodie Bugnicourt described the approaches being followed in MultiCycle (selective solvent-based single pure plastics recovery) and the new Biontop project (bio-based polymers and coatings) to demonstrate and establish circular models and value chains in flexible packaging applications. In real time, Elodie’s group built up the mind map shown above of the interrelationship between various options for end of life routes for multilayer packaging. The take away message was clear: not a single material fits all packaging needs, therefore many different and complementary end of life approaches are needed.

Continuing with its core theme of perspectives for bioplastics packaging, Part 2 of the REFUCOAT webinar The technology behind bio-plastics will take place this Thursday 7th May at 14.00 CEST (registration now closed but enquiries welcome).