Swedish packaging looks for Indian partners

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The ISA is an agency forlinking Swedish businesses with businesses around the world. Apartfrom the business entities there is a healthy dose of research,technology, and design thrown into the mix that helps to provide gluein developing commercial relationships. The ISA recently brought astrong delegation of technologists, scientists and entrepreneurs fromSweden to interact closely for week, with many of the leaders in theIndian packaging industry. The delegation under the leadership ofAnders Eliasson internationally was assisted by Rajiv Sheopuri inIndia, who looks after the ISA program in the areas of materialsscience and innovation and advanced packaging solutions. In parallel,the ISA has built up a strong team of Indian packaging specialistswho work from its Delhi office to make things happen. In fact SrikantIlluri the head of ISA in India is also a TetraPak veteran and RajivSheopuri from ITC and JK Paper.

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The packaging andmaterials delegation not only visited several packaging companies inboth Western and North India but also held seminars in Mumbai andDelhi at which many more companies could take part. Delegatesincluded converters, packaging buyers and senior packagingtechnologists in India. Quite a commercial coordinators from theSwedish Trade Council were also present some with fibre and packagingindustry backgrounds.

The packaging seminarbegan with Anders Eliasson introducing Sweden’s packaging industryreminding the audience of two of the best known Swedish brands IKEAand Tetra Pak. IKEA was the first to bring flat board packaging tothe world and Tetra Pak with its continuously growing volumes andcontributions to aseptic food packaging.

Other sessions includedlight weight packaging from ecolean, fibre based board packaging fromPackit and Scanfil explaining calcium based packaging material whichuses less than half the water required by conventional packagingmaterials. A&R Carton spoke of how rigid packaging could still beused for premium products and products that require customerfunctionality such as multiple use. Dr Anders Soras spoke aboutsustainability and how in his opinion recycling should not be left toconsumers but to industry, who should take active charge of it.Unbeknownst to many of us and something that many environmentalistsare loath to accept is that recycling of certain materials takes moreenergy than producing virgin material. The paradox of “Preventionby source reduction,” that there is a very narrow limit in whichpackaging material can be reduced to minimize environmental impact.Beyond this limit there is negative environmental impact whichaccording to Dr Soras is exponential in comparison to theenvironmental impact of increasing packaging material which islinear. Tools for sustainability and life cycle analysis of packagingcould be an important and beneficial input from the ISA.

From the presentations itis apparent that there is a great deal that the leading Indianpackaging companies could absorb from the ISA’s members apart fromsimple trade and manufacturing know-how and partnerships. We couldgreatly benefit from the Swedish materials research centres andinstitutes such as Innventia in areas that might include research inconsumer behaviour and packaging design.

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Other sessions includedlight weight packaging from ecolean, fibre basedboard packaging fromPackit and Scanfil explaining calcium basedpackaging material whichuses less than half the water required byconventional packagingmaterials. A&R Carton spoke of how rigidpackaging could still beused for premium products and products thatrequire customerfunctionality such as multiple use. Dr Anders Sorasspoke aboutsustainability and how in his opinion recycling should notbe left toconsumers but to industry, who should take active charge ofit.Unbeknownst to many of us and something that manyenvironmentalistsare loath to accept is that recycling of certainmaterials takes moreenergy than producing virgin material. The paradoxof “Preventionby source reduction,” that there is a very narrow limitin whichpackaging material can be reduced to minimize environmentalimpact.Beyond this limit there is negative environmental impactwhichaccording to Dr Soras is exponential in comparison totheenvironmental impact of increasing packaging material whichislinear. Tools for sustainability and life cycle analysis ofpackagingcould be an important and beneficial input from the ISA. Fromthe presentations itis apparent that there is a great deal that theleading Indianpackaging companies could absorb from the ISA’s membersapart fromsimple trade and manufacturing know-how and partnerships. Wecouldgreatly benefit from the Swedish materials research centresandinstitutes such as Innventia in areas that might include researchinconsumer behaviour and packaging design.

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