Luciana Pellegrino and Soha Atallah, vice presidents af WPO (World Packaging Organisation) visited Expo 2020 Dubai to assess and understand how 192 nations foresee their vision for the future. The Expo highlighted the key to foster global progress and allow access to unlock social growth. The main topics covered were:
- Sustainability and the need to have a circular economy
- Smart technology for greater mobility, connectivity and expansion
- Having clean technologies as top priority
- Social equality and women empowerment, inclusion, diversity, opportunities, and cognitive intelligence
Expo Dubai called attention to consumerism, to the impact of people’s decisions and the challenge to change habits and give up convenience.
The Expo’s Sustainability Pavilion aimed at understanding the important role of packaging and the focus on the negative aspect of packaging waste and its disposal in landfills and natures. It highlighted that countries like Finland and Austria have showcased sustainable packaging cases in the past years.
Speaking on the topic, Pellegrino and Atallah said, “When the information is not there, it becomes an information by itself: the packaging industry is not getting its message out there. As a challenge, WPO and national packaging bodies have a key role to play that is to raise awareness on the efforts employed so far to foster recycling technologies. The packaging industry needs to strengthen its presence and message in the media to show the importance of packaging in avoiding waste and to highlight the sustainable packaging innovations taking place.”
“It is also important to make a call for collaboration from the public sector to improve waste management infrastructure and boost recycling programs all over the globe, counting with consumers engament, brands commitment to use recycled materials and innovative materials, and circular solutions,” concluded Atallah.
The WPO vice presidents also had meetings with Dubai Chamber and with the Emirates Environmental Group EEG. During the meetings, the membership of UAE (United Arab Emirates) in WPO and their participation in WorldStar Awards was discussed. The meeting also highlighted WPO activities in education, ‘Save Food’ and the role of WPO in increasing awareness about sustainable packaging.