Top takeaways from the first European shopping bag summit

Challenges, opportunities and new ways of working were the topics of the day at Europe’s first shopping bag summit, hosted by Mondi.

The paper bag industry took an important step towards sustainable innovation when leading shopping bag converters, suppliers and customers came together in Prague on 19 April for Let’s Paper the World 2018 – the first European shopping bag summit, organised by Mondi Group’s Speciality Kraft Paper segment.

Participants included global brands Benetton, H&M and REWE Group; bag manufacturers; papermakers and paper associations; ink and glue producers; bag machine manufacturers; and market intelligence leader Mintel.

The four top takeaways from this pivotal summit:
1. Shopping bags are now high-tech products
Gone are the days of the ‘simple’ paper bag. The technical demands of manufacturing the perfect bag for end customers’ needs are increasing continuously.

Today’s paper shopping bags are high-tech products engineered for specific applications within the food and non-food industry. Shopping bags need to meet a variety of requirements, especially when the end uses involve food, as Petr Jindra, Head of Technical Sales Services, Mondi Speciality Kraft Paper, demonstrated.

He presented a shopping bag produced by bag maker Litobal with a sophisticated, full-colour flexoprint on Mondi speciality kraft paper, proven to carry up to 25 kilos (food retail bags must carry at least 12 kilos), made of credibly certified fibre, and guaranteed safe for contact with food.

Demand for such high-tech bags is growing every day, according to the summit’s participants. Producing them is a technical feat that takes skill, innovation and the highest quality materials.

“It’s a big challenge. In the past, we focused on a few bag sizes and a small range of materials. Now we need to have open minds and find solutions to meet every need,” said Fulvio Curioni, Senior Vice President Legal for Curioni Sun, a paper bag machine manufacturer.

Alberto Bovo, Managing Director at Bovo SpA, said: “Thirty years ago we used to make bags from 120/130 gram paper. Now, if we use a good paper, we can produce bags with 70/80 grams that work just as well. But it’s very important to take care of all the details – the paper, the glue, the ink.”

From brown and white speciality kraft papers, to rough and smooth grades in a range of weights, from virgin and recycled fibres to water-based glues and inks – technical complexity is increasing continuously. Expertise and understanding of how all this technology fits together to make the perfect bag solution is more important than ever for manufacturers.

2. Sustainability is no longer an option – it’s a necessity
Shopping bags made of credibly certified fibre and designed to biodegrade, or be easily recycled or reused, are no longer a niche product for boutique brands. Today, sustainability is mainstream.

“I wouldn’t call sustainability ‘a trend’ anymore. It’s a given,” said Paulus Goess, Sales Director of Mondi Speciality Kraft Paper.
the rest of the story at: https://www.mondigroup.com/en/newsroom/top-takeaways-from-the-first-european-shopping-bag-summit/

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