PRESERVE hosted the event "The future of bio-based packaging. Co-designing a roadmap to 2030"

On Monday 11th December 2023, the PRESERVE project hosted an event entitled ‘The future of bio-based packaging. Co-designing a Roadmap to 2030’ at the Titanic Chaussee in Berlin. 

The event was organised by project partner Crowdhelix and was chaired by Dr Aldo Reyes, PRESERVE project coordinator from IRIS. The event was organised in collaboration with European Bioplastics (EUBP) and was hosted alongside the European Bioplastics Conference, which was also held at the Titanic Chaussee Berlin, on the 12th and 13th December. 

The aim of the event was to present the latest results of the  PRESERVE project, whose goal is to develop materials that can replace over 60% of fossil plastic packaging by 2030, reducing CO2 emissions. The latest PRESERVE events were presented by Dr Kristina Eißenberger from Albstad-Sigmarinen University (ASU), PRESERVE´s scientific coordinator. 

Dr Eißenberger presented the PRESERVE project objectives and emphasised why the PRESERVE project is needed - in 2021 19m tons of packaging was produced and Europe has a significant challenge in order to meet its sustainability goals of recycling 70% of plastics by 2030. Dr Eißenberger presented how the PRESERVE project is developing techniques for upcycling packaging through protein coating, PHA coating, PHA extrusion coating in a bid to meet the plastics recycling target by 2030. 

The event was honoured to have Silvia Maltagliati, Directorate General Research & Innovation, Policy Officer at the European Commission attend and give a presentation to the delegates on the day. Maltagliati explained how important plastic recycling is to the European Commission mission, citing numerous framework programmes and Horizon funding calls, on which the recycling of plastics features as a key initiative and goal for the Commission. The complexities around transitioning from fossil-intensive resources to more bio-based materials for packaging were discussed and key Research and Innovation needs for how this can be achieved were identified as well as how policy will be an enabler to driving better sustainability for the future. 

The third talk of the day was delivered by Cais Jurgens, representing Crowdhelix, who provided a platform demonstration to introduce the Circular Plastic Helix—an online community designed to foster collaboration and drive impactful partnerships. By generating activity and facilitating meaningful connections, the Circular Plastics Helix aims to drive greater impact and collaboration opportunities in the quest for sustainable and circular solutions within the plastic sector. The Circular Plastics Helix community membership consists of 664 individuals, from 238 organisations across 45 countries. Crowdhelix have worked with PRESERVE as the featured project on the Circular Plastics Helix to increase membership of the community, to drive impact from key exploitable results as well as to build consortia for future collaborations in the Circular Plastics space. 

The event was very interactive, comprising presentations from the European Commission, a panel discussion with a representation from academia, industry, EU decision-maker and non-for-profit, moderated by PRESERVE partner Pieter van Gool (Südpack). The panel consisted of Kees Joziasse, VP Research, Development & Technology, Totalenergies Corbion, Charles van Reij, Lead Packaging & Printing, Cradle 2 Cradle Products Innovation Institute, Dr. Kristina Eißenberger, Research Group Leader, Preserve Project Scientific and Technical Coordinator, ASU, Silvia Maltagliati, Directorate General Research & Innovation, Policy Officer at the European Commission. You can rewatch the panel discussion on YouTube. 

The event finished with a mini-workshop with breakout groups that kicked-off a co-design process to develop the PRESERVE 2030 European Roadmap for sustainable packaging, emphasising upcycling and renewable production, moderated by Estela López-Hermoso (EUBP). López-Hermoso gave a summary of the discussions from the day, recapping the PRESERVE project’s main goals and results, discussing the EU Horizon Europe programming on biobased packaging and a brief overview of the panel discussion. Estela explained that the goal of the breakout session was to launch a co-design process and gather key information from stakeholders for a roadmap to 2030. 

The delegates were then grouped into four equal groups and asked to consider different questions. Outcomes from the workshop will be shared with the participants as well as with EU decision-makers and institutions on the future of biobased packaging policies in a bid to shape the future of sustainable packaging alongside industry leaders and experts. 

There were 40 attendees on the day, with participants attending also online from a wide range of countries including the UK, Brussels, Germany, Spain, Netherlands, Poland, Romania, South Korea, Australia, Czech Republic, Switzerland and the USA. 

This was the first in-person event for PRESERVE. During 2024, more events will be organized in order to go together towards our common goal of substituting fossil fuels for food packaging with biobased solutions.