Piyush Goyal, Minister of Commerce and Industry, Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, and Textiles, Government of India said, “The conference will catalyse the packaging industry growth in India.” His presence - albeit virtually - at the 31st IAPRI Member’s Conference underscores the importance of the sector.

Hosted by SIES School of Packaging/Packaging Technology Centre (SOP/PTC), the conference was held from 22 to 25 May, 2023 at Hotel Four Points by Sheraton, Navi Mumbai.

Keynote discusses innovation, sustainability, and knowledge gap

The first speech was delivered by Ramu Ramanathan, editor, PrintWeek India & WhatPackaging?, which focused on the importance of bridging the knowledge gap between research scholars and academia with the industry.

 
(l) Ramu R, editor, PrintWeek India & WhatPackaging? and (r) Diana S, packaging regulatory advisor, the LCA Centre

This was followed by Diana Schiffer, packaging regulatory advisor, the LCA Centre, Netherlands, who shared insights about packaging in the EU. She mentioned the scope and context of sustainable packaging practices and regulatory norms.

The third keynote lecture was delivered by Kirtiraj Gaikwad, assistant professor-packaging technology, IIT Roorkee, India. He said that flexible packaging is preferred over rigid packaging with a growth at a CAGR of 4.8% in recent years. Owing to a low carbon footprint and cost-effectiveness, flexible packaging uses less materials than rigid packaging.

 
(l) Kirtiraj Gaikwad, assistant professor, IIT Roorkee and (r) Ramjee Subramanian, business head, Pakka Impact

The final keynote speech was of Ramjee Subramanian, business head, Pakka Impact, Bengaluru. Subramanian offered solutions for regenerative packaging and discussed various challenges, where current recycling rate is 9%, 23 times more plastic in soils than in oceans and around five tons of carbon dioxide per ton of plastic.

Parallel sessions: packaging research

A graduate research assistant from Virginia Tech, Seth Capizzi presented his study. It stated that the ISO 8611 deflection restrictions can lead to unstable and unbound unit loads. The unbound unit loads designed using recommended ISO deflection limits showed signs of instability.

Carlos Diaz, assistant professor, Rochester Institute of Technology carried out studies on the use of biochar composites for sustainable thermal packaging applications. He identified several combinations of biochar and organic binder that provide performance comparable to EPS.

Sugarcane as a source to produce paper in Mexico was the research topic for Cristina Guzman Siller, University of Monterrey. Although the sixth largest producer of sugarcane in the world, Mexico does not have wood forests to produce paper. The study focuses on reviewing sugarcane-based paper to improve the quality over recycled paper.

Centre of exchange

The conference brought together a combination of established and emerging scholars and researchers to facilitate exchange of ideas and provide valuable insights to students.

The international visitors were given a tour of the SIES SOP/PTC’s The Activity and Research Centre, which was inaugurated on 20 May, 2023.

SIES Activity and Research Centre (SOP & IIEM)

Prasad Balan Iyer, director, SIES SOP/PTC said, “The centre will enable connections between training sites with industry requirements. It shall house several external training programs including material consumption, lowering the carbon footprint.