08:30 - 09:15   Registration, refreshments and networking

09:15 - 09:20   Welcome remarks

Karen Laird, Editor, Plastics News Europe

09:20 - 09:30    Chairman’s welcome and introduction

Michaël Nieuwesteeg, Managing Director, NVC Netherlands Packaging Centre

INTRODUCTION

09:30 - 10:00   Packaging in 2019 – where are we? Industry and policy responses to a radical change in public perception

Hans van Bochove, VP Public Affairs Europe, Coca-Cola European Partners

• Changing public perceptions of packaging and an increasingly complex policy landscape
• Industry’s response, illustrated by Coca-Cola’s approach to sustainable packaging
• And how about those tethered caps?

10:00 - 10:30   Caps and Closures: Sustainability, trade wars and what it means for the future supply of polyolefins

Kevin Longworth, Associate Director, Polyolefins, IHS Markit

• Industry in perspective: The size of the polyolefins industry
• What drives growth in the polyolefins industry?
• Global Trade: How have the trade wars impacted global trade?
• Prices: What will convertors pay in the future?
• Sustainability: What will sustainability mean for growth of the industry?

CAPS AND CLOSURES IN THE CIRCULAR ECONOMY

10:30 - 11:00   Eco design – how to design optimal plastics usage in the circular economy

Els Du Bois, Product Development, University of Antwerp

• Research into the purposeful use of plastics design for long-lived solutions as a response to single-use products
• The need to rethink the related product experience to make it effectively reused
• Where the caps industry can fit into this
• A look to the future

11:00 - 11:30   Extended producer responsibility as a driver of the circular economy

Filip Vangeel, Manager Circular Economy, Valipac

• How extended producer responsibility schemes have an important role to play in the circular economy model
• The Packaging Recovery Organisations (PRO's): how they have the ability to connect the various stakeholders in the value chain, through incentives, tailored actions and pilot projects. Why PRO's are an important part in the engine that drives the circular economy.

11:30 - 12:00   Refreshment break and networking 

12:00 - 12:30    Working together to end packaging as an environmental issue worldwide: the PUMA Project

Michaël Nieuwesteeg, Managing Director, NVC Netherlands Packaging Centre

• Packaging worldwide: five times as big as Google
• How did we create our environmental problems?
• Towards a joint problem definition and vocabulary
• What to do and what NOT to do in the caps and closures business

12:30 - 13:00   Application studies of recycled materials in caps and closures

Morten Augestad, Advisor - Market Director, Norner AS

Emanuele Burgin, ADTS & Innovation Manager, PP Europe Rigid Packaging, Healthcare and Caps & Closures, Pipes and Industrial, LyondellBasell

• How suppliers offer an increased volume of recycled polypropylene and polyethylene to the packaging market; why caps and closures are applications of high interest.
• Why many of the established tests and evaluations for virgin materials are insufficient for recycled materials.
• Showing data and results for how chemical resistance like Environmental Stress Crack (ESCR) or integrated hinge performance in closures needs application-oriented tests to secure the required performance.
• In a circular material future the need for tailored tests for the various applications is essential due to the complex source of recycled materials (post consumer waste, industrial waste, blends etc.).

13:00 - 13:30   "The Limits to Growth"

An iconic film regarding the report published in 1972.

By the late John Cleuren.

13:30 - 14:30   Lunch and networking

TETHERED CAP SOLUTIONS

14:30 - 15:00   Tethered beverage closures

Derek Hindle, Marketing & Innovation Director, Berry Bramlage

• How the focus of the European sustainability agenda is single use plastics (SUP), to include the handling of caps in a circular economy / promoting anti-littering solutions
• The major step-change for the European plastic caps and closures industry – how Berry Bramlage has risen to the challenge
• A look at Berry Bramlage’s solutions as a response to the directive

15:00 - 15:30   The challenge of recycling and food loss with plastic closures

Sei Nakagawa, Assistant Manager, Product Development, Nippon Closures Co.,Ltd.

• The challenge and developed products with emphasis on SDG's
• Introduction of the tethered cap; Why is there a need to develop the tethered cap?
• Reduction of environmental impact
• New technology to make an extension of shelf life with barrier closure
• The proposal of the ideal cap for the circular economy by the Nippon Closures Company

15:30 - 16:00   Refreshment break and networking

16:00 - 16:30   The Industry Challenge: Tethered caps and the impact on the future neck standard for a 26 mm CSD neck

Andreas Brem, Group Technical Sales Director – Beverage and Food, BERICAP

• The requirements of the beverage industry towards the new closures
• How the closures should be available both as light-weight press-on caps, which are mainly used in non-pressurised bottles such as still water, and as screw-on caps for higher demands on the tightness of the closure
• BERICAP ‘s re-design of the existing closures and how it is meeting the challenge 

16:30 - 17:00   How sustainability and tethered caps can contribute to enhance the consumer drinking experience

Augustin de Tilly, Global Business Development Director Beverage, Aptar Food + Beverage

• New tethered closures for flat cap: designed to meet the requirements of the new European regulation called “Single-Use Plastic” and being consumer friendly
• Introducing a new product category “Flip Lid” to meet the Single-Use Plastic requirement while increasing the drinking consumer experience and giving room for further lightweight reduction
• Introducing KARAM, a sustainable solution for mixing product at the point of use
  

17:00 - 17:15   Chairman’s closing remarks

17:15 - 18:15   Networking drinks reception

Programme may be subject to change.