Plastics Caps and Closures Conference Chairman 2019

Michael is board member of the World Packaging Organisation (WPO), secretary of the European Packaging Institutes Consortium (EPIC) and chairman of the Netherlands Packaging Standardisation Committee. As member of the Convenors Action Group (CAG) within ISO he was closely involved in the development of the world standards on packaging and environment.

NVC (founded in 1953) is the association of 550+ companies (retailers, packaged goods manufacturers, packaging and machinery suppliers, service providers, recyclers, etc.) addressing the activity of packaging throughout the supply chain of packaged products. The NVC membership, projects, information services and education programme stimulate the continuous improvement of packaging.

NVC projects include Packaging for e-commerce (Web Retail Packaging), Pharmaceutical packaging innovation, Innovation in packaging print, Packaging and the environment (the PUMA Project), Design for Intended use (DIU) and Fighting against food waste through better packaging. Business education in packaging is provided in the conventional ‘physical’ classroom environment and increasingly via the NVC Live Online classrooms.

Business students in 80 countries have participated in one or more of the NVC Live Online courses and workshops on a wide range of topics in packaging. They have expressed their learning satisfaction on average with a 4.5 score on a scale from 1-5. Without travel, the learning results are excellent due to the live interactivity between tutor and students in the live classroom, from the learning studio in the NVC association office based in Gouda, the Netherlands.

Presentation title: Working together to end packaging as an environmental issue worldwide: the PUMA Project