Plex Machines’ focus on sustainability at Hiplex 2023

BN Bhat on plastics and its alternatives

145
plex
Balmukund Narendrakumar Bhatt, director of Plex Machines at Plex Machine's stall in Hiplex 2023

With a view to providing a long shelf life to packed food materials as well as to make the packaging attractive, Plex Machines, an Indian entity engaged in the manufacturing of extrusion coating and lamination lines, highlighted its ECL series machine at Hiplex 2023 in Hyderabad.

Balmukund Narendrakumar Bhatt, director of Plex Machines, discussed the role of plastics in human life and sustainable practices in the flexible packaging industry. “Sustainability comes with lot many challenges. We need to consider the challenges and then go forward with the plan.” He adds, “Plastics being a very integral part of our daily life, is difficult to take out from the equation. But we need to minimize the usage of plastics.”

Bhatt emphasized the importance of manufacturers taking a proactive role in educating customers about the environmental issues of plastic usage. “The responsibility doesn’t end with the manufacturing process. We need to make the customer aware of other less harmful alternatives that can replace the harmful plastics. By raising awareness about sustainable practices, we can play a small role in making this world a better place.”

While the government is implementing certain norms on the usage of plastic, the flexible packaging industry is moving towards alternatives that are less harmful. “Although plastic can’t be 100% recyclable, we as manufacturers need to shift to other alternatives that are not 100% eco-friendly but less harmful for human life,” said Bhatt. “Globally, everyone has to think on how to minimize the use of nonrecyclable plastic.”

Talking about the extrusion coating and lamination lines machine, he explained its clean and ergonomic design, high-quality components, industry 4.0 compliance, single screen control system with SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition), and its best cost-performance ratio.

Packaging South Asia — resilient, growing and impactful — daily, monthly — always responsive

The multi-channel B2B in print and digital 17-year-old platform matches the industry’s growth trajectory. The Indian, South Asian, Southeast Asian, and Middle East packaging industries are looking beyond the resilience of the past three years. They are resuming capacity expansion and diversification, with high technology and automation in new plants and projects.

As we present our 2024 publishing plan, India’s real GDP growth for the financial year ending 31 March 2024 will exceed 6%. The packaging industry growth will match the GDP growth in volume terms and surpass it by at least 3% in terms of nominal growth allowing for price inflation in energy, raw materials, consumables, and capital equipment.

The capacity for flexible film manufacturing in India increased by 45% over the past four years. With orders in place, we expect another 20% capacity addition in 2024 and 2025. Capacities in monocartons, corrugation, aseptic liquid packaging, and labels are grown similarly. As the consumption story returns over the next six months, we expect demand to return and exceed the growth trajectory of previous years. The numbers are positive for most of the economies in the region – and as shown by our analytics, our platform increasingly reaches and influences these.

For responsible and sustainable packaging, with its attendant regulations and compliances, there is significant headroom to grow in India and the region. Our coverage includes the entire packaging supply chain – from concept to shelf and to waste collection, sorting, and recycling.

We target brand owners, product managers, raw material suppliers, packaging designers and converters, and recyclers. This is a large and complex canvas – the only thing that can work is your agile thinking and innovation together with our continuous learning and persistence.

The coming year looks to be an up year in this region, and this is the right time to plan your participation and marketing communication – in our rich and highly targeted business platform with human resources on the ground. Share your thoughts and plans and to inspire and mobilize our editorial and advertising teams!

For editorial info@ippgroup.in — for advertisement ads1@ippgroup.in and for subscriptions subscription@ippgroup.in

– Naresh Khanna (25 October 2023)

Subscribe Now
unnamed 1

NEWSLETTER

Subscribe to our Newsletter

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here