WPO launches Japanese version of recycling guide

Developed by WPO, Circular Analytics, FH Campus University of Applied Sciences and ECR Community, the guide is a starting point to understand best practice examples, using state-of-the-art technology that can be applied and tailored to suit the recovery and recyclability capabilities and infrastructure on a regional and local level.

The formal launch of the Japanese version was undertaken during the WPO board meeting in November 2023 in South Africa with the presence of the former president, Pierre Pienaar, the current president, Luciana Pellegrino, the representative of Japan Packaging Institute (JPI), Hiroko Akieda, and vice president of sustainability and save food, Nerida Kelton.

‘The Packaging Design for Recycling Guide is a very important tool for the global packaging community to ensure that our industry is taking steady steps, based on scientific foundations, to achieve a circular economy model,’ said Luciana Pellegrino, WPO president.

‘It contributes to addressing the world’s challenges in terms of climate change, environment and preservation of natural resources. We highly recommend the industry to explore this guide as a way of driving efforts based on a common voice of the packaging industry in terms of recycling and circular economy,’ added Pellegrino.

The managing director of the Japan Packaging Institute (JPI), Yoichi Sonoyama, added: ‘It is apt that JPI has finalized the Japanese translation in our 60th year, especially because WPO was established in Japan in 1968. We also wanted to play our role in ensuring that our industry has access to the latest resources, training and guides. By delivering better packaging design to everyone, we will be able to provide better packaging around the world. This design guide will help to aid this objective.’

According to WPO vice president of sustainability and save Ffod, Nerida Kelton, the work undertaken to translate the Global Packaging Recycling Guide should not be underestimated and a huge acknowledgment must go to Yasuhiko Ide, Toshio Arita and Mitsuhiro Sumimoto from JPI, who were dedicated to completing the translation by the second WPO board meeting for 2023.

‘These translations are no small feat and require experts in technical packaging terminology to be able to accurately formulate the translation. The Japanese translation is now available to download and access for free via the World Packaging Organization website and we are looking forward to launching even more guides in 2024. The goal is to ensure that every country in the world has access to the guide so that we can design our waste at the start and ensure that packaging is recycle ready’, said Kelton.