The Organization of Plastics Processors of India is organizing a conference on Plastic Packaging – The Sustainable Choice on 19 January 2016 at FICCI Federation House, New Delhi. Organized jointly with FICCI, the seminar is de-signed for chief executive officers, consultants, marketing professionals, policy makers, prospective investors, entrepreneurs, academic and financial institutions. The objective of the seminar is to look at the new developments and innovations balancing economics and environmental aspects in the plastic industry as well as to facilitate sustain-able growth of the plastic sector keeping in view the environmental issues including plastic waste management and recycling aspects.
The seminar will have five technical sessions: Plastics Packaging – The Sustainable Choice; Innovations in Plastic Raw Materials used for Packaging; Innovations in Packaging; Innovations in Plastic Processing Machines used for Plastic Packaging; and Plastics Pack-aging – The Sustainable Choice Way Forward. The keynote address will be by S Mitra, executive director, Indian Oil Corporation. Some of the other panelists who will participate at the seminar are VK Taparia, executive director, The Supreme Industries; Anup Ghosh, head of Centre for Polymer Engineering and Technology, IIT Delhi; and Vijay Habbu,senior vice president, Reliance Industries.
The Indian plastic industry The plastic industry is making significant contribution to the economic developments and growth of various key sectors in the country. Due to their versatility and imperviousness to water they save significant amounts of energy and water resources and emit lower quantum of greenhouse gases. India has a fairly well developed plastic industry with a size of approximately Rs90,000 crore in FY’14. The sector is steadily growing with a CAGR of 10%from FY’13 and is expected to reach 18million metric tonnes by FY’18. The traditional materials like paper boards,metals, wood, glass have been replaced by plastics in many applications owing to better cost to performance ratio of plastics. Plastics currently comprise42% of packaging and have become the material of choice for the packaging industry in India. Plastics offer attractive packaging designs, better shelf-life,ease of recycling and at the same time reduce the transportation cost, thus aligning with the changing consumer requirements.