ITENE celebrates 30 years of innovation and presents new solutions for packaging sustainability at the Hispack trade fair in Barcelona

• The research centre made a journey through its history at its stand to commemorate its 30th anniversary and presented its services for the development of sustainable packaging materials, validation and optimisation of packaging and pilot scale-up of new developments.
• It organised the series of interviews SustainTalks by ITENE with professionals from INNOTECH COEXPAN EMSUR and ENPLAST and a round table with experts from BEAM SUNTORY, RECKITT and LIDL ESPAÑA to present innovative solutions of the industry to the legislative requirements of sustainability.

The ITENE research centre celebrated 30 years of its innovation work and presented new solutions for packaging sustainability at the Hispack trade fair, which took place from 7 to 10 May at the Fira Barcelona exhibition centre in the Catalan capital.

Under the slogan ‘30 years at the avant-garde of technology and sustainability through innovation’, ITENE showed its technological solutions for a sustainable, functional and safe packaging at stand B 172 in Hall 2. Moreover, on May 8th, César Aliaga, Head of the Packaging and Circular Economy Unit of ITENE made an updated review of the legislation with focus on the future European Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation. On the other hand, ITENE organised the SustainTalks series of interviews, in which leading companies in their sector presented their success stories, and experts from the centre participated in different sessions during Hispack to analyse the challenges of adapting to the European circular economy package.

‘30 years at the avant-garde of technology and sustainability through innovation’

The stand also reflected the evolution during the last three decades of a centre for which R&D represents 85% of its activity. In this line, the commitment to innovation in the packaging sector was vindicated as the axis that has allowed ITENE to become a centre of scientific-technical excellence and an international benchmark. Thus, the transformation of a 20 m2 office into more than 12,000 m2 of facilities that ITENE has nowadays, together with the work of its more than 203 professionals, was highlighted.

In addition, the 24th IAPRI World Packaging Conference, which ITENE will organise in Valencia from 17 to 21 June, was presented. With more than 400 researchers, experts and company professionals expected and 173 speakers, it was the most important scientific and technological congress of the sector at global level in 2024 and the largest IAPRI conference in its history.

Innovative solutions for industry

The advances and services it showcased included the development of sustainable packaging materials, validation and optimisation of packaging and pilot scale-up of new developments. In this way, it presented its services for the development of new sustainable packaging materials with advanced performance and new technologies for recycling and recovery of packaging waste. It also presented its capabilities for assessing recyclability, reusability or compostability, introducing recycled or recovered material from waste, measuring the carbon footprint and improving collection, separation and recycling processes.

Regarding the validation of new developments and their pilot scale-up, ITENE offered testing services carried out in its laboratories and pilot plants to help companies in the legislative compliance and the reduction of costs and incidences in areas such as transport simulation, food safety and compostability.

In addition, ITENE Compostability Lab was presented, which, as part of ITENE, represents an experienced and recognised laboratory for testing industrial and domestic biodegradation and compostability according to American, European and Australian standards. These compostability laboratories are currently accredited to perform compostability tests in four stages: material characterisation, biodegradation, disintegration and compost quality.

Analysis of the new legislative challenges

Apart from the analysis of the new European regulation, ITENE’s agenda started on May 7th in the Conference Room Unboxing 2 with the round table ‘Redefining the packaging of the future: exploring eco-design and eco-innovation at the forefront of sustainability’, organised by PACKNET and with the participation of César Aliaga. That same day, at the Infopack magazine stand, Carlos Monerris, Director of Technology Transfer and Market of the technology centre, took part in the round table ‘Sustainable innovation to boost competitiveness’, while Nuria Herranz, ITENE expert and member of the scientific committee of the 24th IAPRI World Packaging Conference presented this event.

ITENE’s programme of talks continued on 8 May, when César Aliaga will give the lecture ‘One step away from the European Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation’. Carlos Monerris moderated the round table ‘Progress towards the publication of the European Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation. Strategies for 2025-2030-2035-2040’. Participants included Alberto Lozano, Sr. Procurement Manager – Packaging Containers at BEAM SUNTORY, Alejandra Navarro, Sustainability Packaging Manager at RECKITT and Jesús López, Head of Branding & Packaging at LIDL ESPAÑA.

On the same day in the Rambla 1-2 of Hispack, there was also an act of recognition in which a tribute to the 30 years of ITENE’s trajectory took place and which counted with the intervention of its President, Marta Codoñer. At the same time, Juan Luis Martí, Head of Technology Transfer at ITENE, participated in a round table focused on sustainability and design.

Finally, on 10 May, the ‘SustainTalks by ITENE: A step ahead in sustainable packaging innovation’ started. In the session, Ade Prieto, Head of the Project Management and IPR Unit of the centre, interviewed Antonio Riaño, Innotech Manager at INNOTECH COEXPAN EMSUR and Natalia Campos, CEO of ENPLAST.