Conai supports eco-design

The winners of the Conai 2018 Prevention Call (fifth edition) were announced on November 19, that made 400,000 euros available to packaging user and producer companies that have revised their packaging in terms of sustainability.

161 the projects submitted (+10% compared to last year), of which 103 admitted and 38 cases awarded financially: these are the numbers of the fifth edition of the "CONAI Prevention Call - Enhancing the environmental sustainability of packaging". Promoted by the National Packaging Consortium under the patronage of the Ministry of the Environment, it has awarded the most innovative and environmentally sustainable packaging solutions put on the market in the two-year period 2016-2017.

The 103 cases admitted achieved an effective reduction in the environmental impact of packaging, quantifiable in containing 25% of carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere, a reduction in energy consumption of 23%, and a 26% saving in water.

The CONAI 2019 Prevention Call will soon be available. Among the new features, the total prize money is expected to increase from 400 to 500 thousand euros, confirming the attention to the theme of eco-design, central to achieving the most challenging recycling objectives dictated by the new European rules on packaging in terms of circular economy.

«Il Bando Prevenzione mette a disposizione importanti risorse economiche per premiare gli sforzi di ricerca e sviluppo delle aziende consorziate, e rappresenta un sistema win-win sia per le imprese sia per l’ambiente» ha dichiarato Giorgio Quagliuolo, Presidente di CONAI. «Noi continuiamo a promuovere l’adozione di imballaggi sempre più green mettendo in campo nuove misure. Dal canto nostro, continuiamo a promuovere l’adozione di imballaggi sempre più green mettendo in campo nuove misure, come la diversificazione del contributo ambientale (CAC): dal 1° gennaio 2019 diminuisce infatti per gli imballaggi in acciaio,  viene più che dimezzato quello relativo all’alluminio e cresce invece per gli imballaggi in carta e cartone, plastica e vetro».

As reiterated by Giorgio Quagliuolo, President of CONAI «the Prevention Call provides important economic resources to reward the research and development efforts of the associated companies, and represents a win-win system for both companies and the environment. For our part, we continue to promote the adoption of increasingly green packaging by introducing new measures, such as the diversification of the environmental contribution (CAC): in fact, from 1 January 2019 it decreases for steel packaging, the aluminium one is more than halved and instead increases for paper and cardboard, plastic and glass packaging». 



Prevention in practice

The award-winning cases represent the supply chains of all six packaging materials - steel, aluminium, paper, wood, plastic and glass, and numerous product sectors, ranging from the production of food packaging (48%) to personal care products (8%) and detergency (7%), up to packaging for industrial use.
The admitted cases represent the concrete implementation of 212 different preventive actions: the most frequent is the saving of raw materials (43% of cases), followed at a distance by the optimization of logistics (18%).


The majority of interventions (53%) concerned primary packaging, while the remaining 47% actions on secondary and tertiary packaging, ie those used for the storage and transport of products respectively.

The National Packaging Consortium has put at the disposal of the most deserving projects a prize pool of 400,000 euros, with 70,000 euros in special prizes (mentioned in the box) as follows: € 60,000 for the most virtuous cases of each supply chain (steel, aluminIum, paper, wood, plastic and glass), and €10,000 for the most significant case from a technical-design point of view.

The applications were analyzed through the Conai Eco Tool which, thanks to a simplified LCA analysis, enables the calculation the effects of preventiveactions implemented by companies on packaging through a comparison before and after in terms of energy saving, water and reduction of CO₂ emissions.

The ranking of the winning cases was also validated by DNV GL, a third-party certification body.

        THE WINNERS OF THE SPECIAL PRIZE

• Whitford Srl (special prize for steel packaging)

• Zenith Alluminio Srl (special prize for aluminum packaging)
• 
Olearia F.lli De Cecco By Filippo Fara San Martino Srl (special prize for glass packaging)

• Gias Srl (special prize for paper packaging)
• 
Ivar Spa (special prize for wood packaging)
• Polo Plast Srl (special prize for plastic packaging)

• Davines Spa (special award for the most deserving case from a technical-design point of view).