Plast: balance and new projects

The seventeenth edition of Plast (5-9 May 2015, Fiera Milano Rho) ended with a participation of 1,558 exhibitors (in 2012 they were 1,514) over an area of 54,595 square meters, slightly less than the 56,832 of the previous edition.

The visitors were 50,087, more than 35% of which from outside Italy - in line with the 2012 edition - while the Italian presence was down slightly, as was also predicted. Thus the event dedicated to the plastics and rubber industries, organized by Promaplast, confirms its international scope and standing, strengthened by the high number of foreign delegations visiting the show: no less than 40, comprising 300 delegates.
Intense the calendar of events, among which the conference “Innovation, safety and sustainability of plastic packaging for food”, introduced by Elvira Cecere of the Directorate General for Hygiene and Food Safety of the Italian Ministry of Health, and attended by Representatives of IPIL, Sealed Air, Corepla, Conip, ISS. In a press conference held during the fair, Mario Maggiani, CEO of Promaplast, announced the guidelines for the next edition, which will see a consolidation of the satellite shows Rubber, 3D Printing and Start Plast, but also the formation of new theme areas dedicated, among other things, to recycling and to composite materials. But the main novelty regards the dates of the next Plast, to be held 26 to 30 September 2017, not 8 to May 12, 2018 as the show’s traditional three year recurrence would have it. The goal is to avoid any overlap with several other major events in various parts of the world, and thus spare the sector industry an excessive burden of commitments. Exhibitors welcomed the change, along with the move away from the traditional spring months, too crowded with events.