What is the panorama of the packaging sector in Portugal?
Do it at home at the packaging manufacturer, through mass consumption and the HORECA channel, everyone has to do their part to achieve the goals set for recycling.
The Portuguese recycled more during the pandemic. “In 2020, collections increased30, as a whole”. And, in 2021, the record we have is 8.2%”, said Pedro Simões, director general of Novo Verde, during a CNN conversation about “The panorama of the packaging sector in Portugal”. The conversation, which took place on March 17, was moderated by Sara Sousa Pinto, presented by Esta Manhã, and was outlined with the participation of Nuno Lacasta, president of the Portuguese Environment Agency (APA).
Recycling: goals and challenges
Despite this increase, the 20 targets for recycling up to 30 are ambitious. Portugal, the challenge of finding more effective solutions to increase not only the waste capacity that follows recycling, but also its quality. “We currently have appreciable recycling rates,” says Nuno Lacasta. However, “in the next decade we will have to go from 63% to almost 90%. This challenge is important”, the person in charge.
In addition to increasing the recycling rate, Nuno Lacasta highlights the importance of reducing the amount of waste deposited in landfills. Today, this percentage is close to 50% and should rise to 10%. As such, “all strategies in Portugal have to go through producing less waste and, when we do, we have to transform it into raw material to make new packaging”, he concludes.
A step will be taken while waste management entities, such as Novo Verde, also start to manage industrial packaging.
With regard to, Pedro Simões, the role played by the HORECA channel (hotel, restaurant and similar establishments) in achieving the HORECA goals. “It is an identified difficulty. This sector needs a lot of work and has great potential in the capture of glass waste”.
Recycling targets by sector:
until 2025 | until 2030 | |
Plastic | 50% | 55% |
wood | 25% | 30% |
ferrous materials | 70% | 80% |
Aluminum | 50% | 60% |
paper and cardboard | 75% | 85% |
Glass | 70% | 75% |
Awareness, incentive and door-to-door systems
The three fundamental pillars for Portugal to achieve the goals, according to Pedro Simões, are awareness, deposit and door-to-door systems.
In the case of incentive systems, highlight and highlight the deposit systems payment as per release (polluter pays system), which have stood out in the last year, through the implementation of pilot projects with a higher success rate.
It is important to remember that these systems are not a solution to all problems. The objective is “to find an agreement, but we need to study a mixed system of solutions that work”, explains the person in charge of Novo Verde.
Plastic: it is necessary to rethink packaging
Plastic is a very important material in our society. It is present in several areas of our consumption, from food, health to cosmetics. “We have to know how to live with this material. It is important to have responsible consumption and deposit it in the right places”, says Pedro Simões. “We can’t just change the packaging material and keep the behavior, because we’re going to have the same problem.”
In terms of recycling, this is one of the most challenging materials. “One of the main difficulties in recycling plastic is that, for example, a package can have four or five types of plastic bottle, and it is not easy to separate these materials and then make another bottle again. We have to have less materials in the original packaging”, explains Nuno Lacasta.
Consumer habits change and producers have to find new solutions for packaging, but one thing is for sure: we are all aware that we will continue to use plastics. But what kind of plastic will that be? More recycler.
“Companies that make plastic packaging have to start not using oil as their raw material, but rather the waste that was separated and became raw material. If we manage to use about 60% of plastic in a package, we will no longer need so much oil”, remarked the APA representative.
Despite representing a challenge, it is also the material that is having one of the best environmental performances. Data that, last year, the goals planned for 2025 were reached. “The estimates that, in 2021, point to recycling 51% of the weight of plastic packaging waste, when the goal was 5%”, says the director general from New Green.
Nuno Lacasta ended the talk with an appeal to the Portuguese: “we must be aware that if we separate, we are ensuring that the packaging does not end up in our rivers, sewers or sea. When people are aware, a virtuous circle is closed instead of a vicious cycle”. Ready to do your part?
To promote innovation in packaging, Novo Verde developed the New Green Packaging ’21 Entrepreneurial Award, whose candidacies end on March 31. This is a research and development award aimed at industry, distribution, academia and technological areas related to the packaging sector in Portugal. The winning project will be awarded a global amount of 25 thousand euros. |