A new professional organisation was created at the end of February. At the end of February, the leading manufacturers and suppliers of cellulose food packaging raw materials launched the European Paper Packaging Alliance (Eppa).
With this alliance, they want to find solutions to increase recycling and reduce carbon emissions from packaging and food services, while ensuring food safety. To achieve this, Eppa intends to work with European decision-makers.
"Europe and the world face many challenges ranging from climate change to resource scarcity to the fight against bacterial and viral infections" says in a statement, the first president of the alliance, Antonio D'Amato, head of the Italian group Seda International Packaging.
He goes on to say: "At the beginning of the 20th century, the paper cup was specially designed to avoid the dangers and health problems of shared and reused glasses and ladles on public transport and in hospitals.
Food service packaging made from sustainably produced paper and fibre can provide solutions that protect the health and safety of consumers, the vitality of our environment and the viability of a circular economy"
The founding members of Eppa are: Italy's Seda International Packaging Group?; the Finnish packaging company Huhtamaki?; France Schisler?; Sweden's AR Packaging Group; UK manufacturer Smith Anderson?; Finnish-Swedish papermaker Stora Enso?; Finnish papermaker Metsä Board?; Austria's Mayr-Melnhof Karton?; the US-based group WestRock?; Swedish papermaker Iggesund/Holmen and US packaging equipment manufacturer Paper Machinery Corporation.
Eppa is headquartered in The Hague, the Netherlands, in the offices of Lejeune Association Management.
