What is responsible packaging? A collaborative effort among the brands, converters, associations with the support of the government, to design innovative sustainable packaging and enable a circular economy.

Prof Dr NC Saha, the chairman of the FIPS told WhatPackaging?, “India is very much proactive about sustainability. brand owners are working aggressively to explore the possibility of identifying alternative packaging materials which are sustainable with low carbon emission towards a circular economy.”

“FMCG companies are working to modify the structural design of either flexible or rigid materials where the finished plastics packaging product will be made either from single layer or single polymeric materials. This will ensure the post consumer packaging materials can be easily recyclable,” added Saha.

Also, a lot is happening in our industry, with numerous conferences taking place. Respack stands out as the only conference in India that addresses all types of packaging materials, not just plastics, in addition to covering related technologies. 

Reaspack 2023 focussed on product-based responsible materials like day one was packaging of food and beverages; day two was packaging of healthcare and oral care. 

WhatPackaging? finds out this edition of Respack deploys a different approach. Here’s how.

Day one will focus on optimal design and innovative materials. This includes sessions like optimal package design, the Indian packaging industry scenario and its prospects, export market potential, different types of innovative packaging materials, brand owners perspective. 

Day two will focus on sustainable technologies. This includes different types of technologies like printing technology, labelling technology, sustainable conversion technologies, recycling technologies and statutory regulations.

The conference will invite RR Rashmi, mentor, FIPS and distinguished fellow, TERI as the guest of honour. Padma Shri awardee and advisor to FIPS, S Sivaram with Manoj Tiwari, director at Indian Institute of Management (Mumbai), to deliver the keynote address.

The knowledge and panel sessions will be headed by industry stalwarts including Mr Saha, Umesh Nayak of Reliance Industries, Ramesh Kejriwal of Parksons Packaging, Manish Patil of L’Oreal, Vimal Kedia of Manjushree Ventures, Ashwani Sharma of JSW, MK Banerjee and Lakshmi Raghupathy of FIPS. Also, S Venkatraman of ITC PSPD, GV Sreekumar of IDC School of Design, Sapan Ray of ICPE, Swarn Grover of Kellogg's India, Bhavesh Gandhi of Millad Milliken Chemicals & Textiles will be present.

Respack has announced a lineup of speakers: Anuj Bhargava of Kumar labels, Chetan Jain of Taurus Packaging, Nilesh Pinto of Bobst India, Nitin Agarwal of A J Packaging, Ramjee Subramanian of Pakka, Venkatesh RajaGopalan of UFlex, among others, including international speakers.

Also, there will be three panel discussions across both days. Here are the panellists, who bring in over a decade of experience in the packaging industry, together - Deepak Manchanda of FIPS, Satish Velumani of Pakka, Haresh Mehta of Jayna Packaging, Ayaz Kagzi of Pidlite, Sanjay Gupta of DS Foods, Yogesh Bambal of Mondelez International, Shilpa Surve of Colgate-Palmolive, Krunal Goda of Anand Tattva and Amit Kale of Reliance Retails.

Overall, Respack 2024 will be an ideal knowledge platform where the industry will have an opportunity to discuss and share the good work being done by the industry, also opines Mr Saha.

You can register here.