Speciality Films Conference Mumbai
During the 4th Speciality Films & Flexible Packaging, Global Conference held in Mumbai, India on 15 – 16 September 2015 John James, Export Manager of Wells Plastics gave a presentation entitled “The Use of Oxo-biodegradable Packaging in Flexible Films - Dealing with the Issue of Plastic Litter”. The conference was widely considered as a major success in the industry with over 800 attendees representing 340 Organizations and from 25 countries across the Globe. In India and elsewhere, flexible laminates are often the optimum packaging for many food and non-food products (like Chips, Snack Foods, Biscuits, Confectionery, Tea, Sugar, Rice, Edible Oil, Milk, Baby food, Shampoo, Auto Spares etc.). However, the widespread use of flexible plastic packaging and the litter resulting from its careless disposal, and the absence of an effective collection and plastic waste management system, have all together made plastic packaging the a major issue in India. Since currently most plastic packaging is non-biodegradable and non-recyclable, careless disposal of post-consumer packaging waste creates a tremendous amount of litter, which can last for many years in the environment. This problem is also common in many Asian, African and other countries too. Therefore, tackling the issue of plastic packaging litter should be an important issue for FMCG companies, State Government, Central Government, Government bodies and NGOs. Reverte™ has been used in numerous PE and PP applications for many years and now, after completing 3 years of development work, Wells Plastics is offering a new grade of ReverteTM for PET film. Since most of flexible plastic packaging in India has a layer of PET or MET PET film, this new development is expected to revolutionise the fight against flexible plastic packaging litter in the country and beyond. During the last few years Wells has worked with many of the major film manufacturers in India and completed testing of PET, BOPP, MET PET, MET BOPP, PE films incorporating ReverteTM in all the layers and it has now been well proven that multilayer films/packaging produced with Reverte™ will oxo-biodegrade in the open environment. Multilayer laminates made of films incorporation Reverte™ in all layers have been tested and are found to give adequate shelf life, even when the packaged products are displayed in the sun. Major PET and BOPP film manufacturers in India have successfully produced Oxo-biodegradable BOPP, MET BOPP, PET and MET PET using ReverteTM