The leader of the World Packaging Organization has called on the stakeholders in the packaging and manufacturing industries to convince people to change their eating habits towards more environmentally sustainable food consumption to lessen the environmental footprint of packed food and help nature generate resources faster.

Sustainable food consumption is the use of goods and services that respond to basic needs and bring a better quality of life while minimizing the use of natural resources, toxic materials, and emissions of waste and pollutants over the life cycle so as not to jeopardize the needs of future generations.

During the ProPak Philippines convention that happened 1 to 3 February 2023 at the World Trade Center, Pasay City, WPO president Pierre Pienaar said they are serious about saving food through better packaging, reducing packaging waste, and promoting sustainable packaging.

“But at the core of the WPO is the drive to educate more people about the effectiveness and correctness of packaging,” he added.

WPO is a non-profit, non-governmental, international federation of national packaging institutes and associations, regional packaging federations and corporations, and trade associations to encourage the development of packaging technology, science, access, and engineering; contribute to the development of international trade; and stimulate education and training in packaging.

During the forum, Pienaar spoke before 250 leading local and international exhibitors from 25 countries and regions at ProPak Philippines, showcasing the latest manufacturing, packaging, and processing technologies.

Pienaar said that the global packaging industry needs technical expertise, or it will have a void in the industry in the next 5 to 10 years.

Further, he emphasized that packaging education helps ensure that the world’s resources are used as effectively and economically as possible.

“I encourage each of you to do your part about educating your people in your region. Propak Philippines is an excellent learning platform because the industry needs to contribute significantly to improving knowledge and expertise,” Pienaar said.

ProPak Philippines also features training courses, free workshops to be conducted by the Australian Institute of Packaging, and a paid training course on 2 February.

The group also hosted conference sessions from partner associations, such as the Active and Intelligent Packaging Industry Association, WPO, Philippine Printing Technical Foundation, Philippine Association of Food Technologists Inc. and Production and Operations Management Association of the Philippines, among others.

Trade Secretary Alfredo Pascual personally graced the said occasion, along with companies engaged in processing and packaging machinery, technology, and materials in the filling, bottling, quality assurance, testing and measurement, maintenance, and their related fields of automation, instrumentation, refrigeration and storage.

Also represented are businesses involved in labeling, printing, plastics processing, and wrapping machinery.

“We emphasize the development needed to get technology adoption in both big-scale and MSMEs. With our international network and our brand ProPak in Asia, we have also brought experts to share their experience during the 3-day event in conferences and seminars,” said Rungphech Chitanuwat, Informa Markets Regional Group Director — ASEAN.