Taking place at its site in Normanton, West Yorkshire on Tuesday (15 October), the event – titled ‘Welcome to a Flexible Future’ – saw Parkside open its doors to thought leaders from across the packaging sector and decision-makers from some major consumer brands.
The day featured a programme of talks focused on offering insights and inspiration about the future of packaging, as well as a networking lunch and a tour of Parkside’s flexible packaging production facilities.
Speakers included Dr Thomas Baker, plastics specialist at WRAP, who hosted a presentation on the journey to film circularity – one of the biggest issues in the packaging sector currently.
Olga Munroe of the Retail Institute spoke about how to achieve systemic change to benefit the future of packaging, while Paul Jenkins of ThePackHub gave an overview of the latest packaging trends.
Finally, Ian Bates of Two Sides gave a presentation on the future of flexible paper packaging.
Several members of the Parkside team also delivered talks, with group sales director Paul McKeown giving a potted history of Parkside’s 70 years in operation, while technical director Joshua Swann provided insights into the company’s technical capability and materials portfolio.
Julia O’Loughlin, group marketing manager at Parkside, said: “We pride ourselves on working at the cutting edge of packaging innovation. This forward-thinking presentation outlines our optimistic view of the future, and of packaging’s place in a truly circular economy.”
Attendees on the day included representatives from packaging industry suppliers like Multi-Plastics, Proseal, TNA Solutions, and Moore and Buckle. Other attendees were from brands including Betty’s and Taylor’s of Harrogate, and Two Farmers crisps.
Commenting on the event, WRAP’s Baker said: “What stands out is the innovation being driven by the packaging industry, particularly best-in-class monopolymer designs seen today at Parkside Flexibles that meet functional, sustainability, and regulatory requirements at once.
“This helps to make sorting and recycling that much easier. That is a positive step towards creating a viable closed-loop waste system that processors and recyclers can engage with in future and is what the UK Plastics Pact strives for with recyclability.”
ThePackHub’s Jenkins added: “It’s been a hugely positive open house. There aren’t enough of these events taking place in my opinion – it’s been a valuable experience for all of us to see how it really works at the cutting edge of packaging development, and to network with the people who are making it happen.”
Elsewhere to coincide with Recycle Week – which runs from 14-20 October – WRAP has warned that households are wasting over one billion items every year that could be recycled.
Britain’s most binned items include 845 million cleaning product bottles, 526 million aerosols, 7.4 million yoghurt pots, and six million aftershave and perfume bottles.
Recent figures published by Defra (Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs) have found that UK recycling rates have fallen.
While nine out of ten people regularly recycle, nearly eight out of ten put one or more items into the bin that could be recycled. In 2022, UK households produced 25,691,000 tonnes of waste, of which 11,330,000 (44.1%) was recycled.
WRAP CEO Harriet Lamb said: “We’re a nation of recyclers with eight out of 10 UK households regularly recycling, but we need to do so much more to rescue items from the main rubbish!
“Too often we’re putting goods such as deodorant cans, yoghurt pots or cleaning bottles in the rubbish when they can in fact be recycled. The more items we rescue from the main bin, the less goes to landfill and incineration, the more we reduce our impact on the climate.
“This Recycle Week we urge every household, business, school and organisation to help rescue more items from the rubbish bin so that we can achieve a world where ‘landfill’ becomes little more than a memory, where we are recycling everything possible – and of course reducing the amount we use in the first place.”
Circular economy minister Mary Creagh also commented: “With recycling rates falling and over one billion recyclable items binned annually, we have a huge task ahead to create the zero-waste society we all want to see.
“This year’s Recycle Week, we can all do our bit by rescuing more rubbish from the bin and recycling it instead.
“It’s also why this government will move towards a circular economy where we keep our resources in use for longer, waste is reduced, and the path to net zero is accelerated.”
During Recycle Week, local authorities across England and Northern Ireland are hosting roadshows, competitions, and lots of social media activity where the public can get involved and support Recycle Week in their area.
