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Interview with Lieven Capon, Program Manager Sustainable Packaging at Fost Plus

This will be the first time that Fost Plus has spoken at E-PACK Europe. Tell us a bit more about your organisation

Fost is the PRO (Producer Responsibility Organisation) for household packaging in Belgium. We were set up in 1994 to fulfil our members' take-back obligation in terms of recycling of household packaging. We therefore created efficient structures so that consumers can sort correctly anytime, anywhere. Together with the companies concerned, we optimised packaging design in order to improve recycling. And with the waste management facilities we developed local recycling chains.

Thanks for those efforts and collaborations, we have managed to recycle 95% if all household packaging in 2023 and 68% of the plastics, at a reasonable cost. But the world is changing and so is our role. From design and (re)use to recycling; wherever raw materials are used to make (packaging) materials, we aim to ensure that this can be done in a sustainable, infinite chain.

Can you give us a glimpse of the themes you will be focusing on in your presentation?

I will focus on our activities and services we provide to our members and companies to help them reduce the impact of their packaging and achieve their sustainable packaging goals. I will also provide an overview of the expanded producer responsibilities and obligations for e-commerce packaging and the challenges and opportunities for the e-commerce packaging sector in the context of the PPWR.

What trends do you see this year with e-commerce packaging?

Like many other companies, the e-commerce sector is committed to making their sector more sustainable and minimizing the impact of the packaging used. We see a lot of initiatives emerging in this field recently, ranging from the use of tailor-made transport packaging that contains less material and empty space, to the use of envelopes instead of boxes, to even omitting the transport packaging if the product is already well packaged. We also note that local e-commerce carriers are experimenting with reusable boxes and other types of packaging.