The European automotive industry
fully supports the introduction of more sustainable practices to minimise the
negative environmental impacts of non-optimised packaging and non-recyclable
packaging waste. At the moment, however, the EU Packaging and Packaging Waste
Regulations (PPWR) present the industry with an unclear roadmap which is
hampering our collaborative efforts to develop solutions which are both efficient
and legal. We therefore continue our attempts to influence the law makers to
modify aspects of the legislation to make it more readily applicable to
automotive packaging practices.
Since we last reported on the PPWR in February, we have been working with our members to try to make sense of the upcoming challenges so that the industry can develop solutions in time to support the new regulations. At the same time we are attempting to influence the law makers to modify certain aspects of the current draft legislation to make it more easily applicable to automotive packaging practices.
The Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulations (PPWR) currently being prepared by the EU are clearly aimed at consumer packaging, in terms of both reducing waste and reducing the amount of plastic content, but the legislation will also have a significant impact on automotive packaging and with deadlines fast approaching, companies in the automotive supply chain need to act now!
At the request of its members, Odette has called a meeting of automotive companies and packaging manufacturers on 22 November in Berlin to discuss the current challenges facing the suppliers and users of automotive packaging, and the possibility of taking a collaborative approach to meet those challenges.
The automotive industry is increasingly moving to smaller pack quantities, for both deliveries and trackside storage, which has led to more and more tray and blister packaging being used. These very small packaging sizes pose particular challenges for labelling even with the small load container labels already specified by Odette. To meet these challenges, the Odette Technology Group has designed two even smaller labels which can carry the main data items of the Global Transport Label.
Digitalisation of the automotive supply chain continues apace and APIs appear to be the tool of choice to fill the gaps and supplement well established digital infrastructures. Odette has therefore set up an API Expert Group dedicated to developing rules for a standardised approach to API implementation and applying them to selected business cases.
The packaging of purchased parts is a key element of automotive supply chain management, however the diverse methods used to exchange information during the development and definition of part packaging solutions means that the process is not as efficient as it should be.
Throughout the automotive value chain, packaging experts continuously
seek to improve packaging materials and processes throughout the life cycle of
a product, from conception to end of life and OEMs have worked together under
the auspices of Odette and SMMT to achieve a step change in the area of
packaging manufacture.
