ADF 2024 Day One
Image: Alex Rivers
Paris Packaging Week is well underway, and Sarah Hills and I have had a busy morning walking the ADF floor and listening in to some presentations.
This afternoon’s ADF Talks saw an insightful panel consisting of Shelley Ranii, director of global marketing at Alcoa; Predrag Ozmo, sustainability director at Ball; and Phillip Jagger, aerosol can technology & capability manager, Unilever, discussing the decarbonisation of the aluminium value chain with a highlight on working together to achieve it.
What is evident is that more funding needs to be made available for low carbon aluminium, which was a point stressed by Ranii, who reminded the audience that there is not enough primary aluminium available worldwide for all aluminium products to be made from 100 per cent recycled aluminium content.
Ozmo noted Ball’s holistic approach to decarbonisation, noting that the company is trying to minimise the reliance on offsetting, at least for the time being, and focus instead on more impactful reductions in terms of electricity and heat in the company’s operations. He noted that the biggest levers in achieving the goals laid out in Ball’s Climate Transition Plan are lightweighting, sourcing low carbon aluminium and focusing on circularity which involves really pushing to improve recycling rates.
Jagger noted the complexities of making the whole aerosol can and its components sustainable ie the actuator and propellant aspects. Again, he stressed that every supplier needs to work collaboratively to achieve decarbonisation.
Ranii’s concluding statement was that “not all aluminium is created equal” and urged the relevant audience members to “ask where it comes from” and push for low carbon aluminium, because that is what suppliers should be working with to truly help the industry on its sustainability journey.
As you can see just from this snippet, ADF Paris has given us much food for thought so far, and no doubt that will continue throughout the rest of today and its final day tomorrow (18 January).
Special thanks to Jay Billings at Ball Corporation for the interview we conducted earlier, which will be found in the upcoming February edition of the magazine, as well as a review of the show as a whole.
- Alex Rivers (she/her), CanTech International editor
Keep in touch via email: [email protected] Twitter: @CanTechIntl or LinkedIn: CanTech International magazine.
