• The meeting organised by the Galician Food Cluster and the Packaging Cluster of Catalonia was attended by more than 60 professionals from the packaging and food sectors
• DS Smith, Buergofol and Karibou offered three sustainable alternatives to reduce the production of non-reusable plastic packaging

The Food Cluster of Galicia - Clusaga - and the Packaging Cluster of Catalonia came together on 12 April in a virtual meeting to discuss the special tax on non-reusable plastic packaging and its impact in the first months of implementation, from 1 January 2023. More than 60 professionals from the packaging and food industry attended.

Roberto Alonso, Director of Clusaga, was in charge of setting the context of the intercluster session, which is part of the Galician cluster's working group 3 on "Sustainability, circular economy and bioeconomy", jointly between the Innovation and R&D Commission and the Sustainability Commission.

Eduardo Espejo, Partner at FIDE Tax & Legal, gave a brief overview of the consequences of the special tax on non-reusable plastic packaging, which is levied at €0.45 per kilo of plastic packaging produced or imported that is not reusable or recyclable, as a consequence of the Law on Waste and Contaminated Soil.

With this in mind, three alternatives to reduce the use of non-reusable plastic were presented by Iago Candal, Head of Regional Design & Innovation at DS Smith; Albert Negre, CEO of Buergofol; and Xavier Pinosa, CEO of Karibou. Both three associate members of the Packaging Cluster.

The meeting concluded with a digital panel discussion in which the three invited experts were able to explain their business experiences regarding the tax, moderated by Mireia Andreu Robert, Innovation Manager of the Packaging Cluster. Price increases, resource viability, reuse systems and extended producer responsibility were some of the issues addressed during the discussion between DS Smith (supplier of sustainable paper/cardboard packaging and recycling services), Buergofol (developers of flexible packaging solutions) and Karibou (manufacturers of 100% plant-based packaging for food and beverages).

As Mireia Andreu says, "Sharing the experience of the packaging industry with the plastic tax with the companies associated with the Galician Food Cluster has been very enriching. The food and beverage sector is one of the most important markets in which we operate, so knowing how companies experience it is necessary to establish a medium-long term strategy".