20 years in a highly innovative industry

What has changed, however, are demographic factors such as increasing urbanisation and small households in the highly developed part of the world, the global increase in population from around six billion to around eight billion people and the overall growth in consumption with a steady increase in the number of people living in the same area. increasing number of products, the vast majority of which have to be packaged. In this context, it is not surprising that the handling of used packaging has increasingly come under scrutiny over the last 20 years.

In this context, packaging increasingly became the „bad boy“. It was - and still is - often overlooked that the packaging industry was already a pioneer in the circular economy, environmental protection and product responsibility 20 years ago was. The overall recycling rate for packaging was already 77.9 per cent in 2002.

With product responsibility and take-back obligations, not only was a new, profitable business developed around the turn of the millennium, but also a new, market-based and flexible instrument of environmental policy. Other products are now also benefiting from what our industry has innovated and developed over the last two decades.

An exciting reflection of the changes and innovative strength of the industry is the German Packaging Award, which has been organised under the auspices of the Federal Minister of Economics since 1963 and has been under the responsibility of the Federal Ministry of Economics since 1996. dvi lies. It clearly reflects the focal points of contemporary requirements and demands. The award winners of what is now the largest exhibition of packaging-related achievements in Europe, for example, clearly illustrate the Growing importance of environmental and sustainability aspects prove it.

An immense dynamic has developed here in the last decade in particular - long before it became an issue for the general public with the first images of animal suffering caused by ocean littering. As dvi, we therefore launched our own Sustainability category introduced at the German Packaging Award, which very quickly became the most-submitted category in the competition. was introduced. However, newly introduced categories such as „New material“ or „Digitalisation“ and the constantly growing number of innovations in the field of technology and automation also show that packaging continues to move with the times - and in the best case scenario, is a step ahead of them.

Another aspect that has characterised the last 20 years is the Importance of collaboration in the value chain. The days of the ingenious solo player are increasingly over. The demands and tasks to be mastered have become ever greater and more complex. Increasingly, they can only be mastered by working together. This applies in particular to the aspect of innovation, which is central to solving fundamental challenges - and which can only be achieved with the necessary speed and quality through teamwork.

For the dvi as the only Network of the packaging industry, whose members include companies from all areas of the value chain. this is both a growing demand and confirmation. We therefore bring stakeholders together in our working groups. The composition of our Executive Board also reflects this objective. With Procter & Gamble, Nestlé, Tetra Pak, Mayr-Melnhof, Siegwerk and the Schwarz Group, we have successful innovators on board as pilots under the chairmanship of Wolf-Dieter Baumann, who brings a wealth of expertise, especially in the machinery and technology sector.