Technological watch

Southeast Asia’s largest economy, Indonesia, has a fast-growing plastics industry owing to robust demand from its food & beverage (F&B) packaging sector that accounts for around 60% of the plastics industry’s output. The country’s huge population of more than 270 million presents an attractive market for F&B packaging. But Indonesia continues to face mounting plastic waste problems that collaboration between the government and private organizations are directed towards programs and projects for an effective waste management system and recycling in order to implement a circular economy.
Roughly 80% of the plastic waste comes from land while the remaining 20% comes from coasts and oceans. The country announced a new plan during the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting in Davos in 2021, where it pledged to reduce marine plastic waste by 70% within five years and to become totally pollution-free by 2040. The plan also calls for redesigning of plastic products for recycling and eventual reuse, with the objective to double the recycling capacity in order to be able to process an additional of 975,000 tons of waste annually. Indonesia is also building and expanding its waste disposal facilities to manage an additional of 3.3 million tons of plastic waste yearly.
Southeast Asian countries, like Indonesia, present opportunities for companies offering high-tech solutions for packaging production. With digitalization and smart manufacturing becoming the trends of the future for the packaging sector, CHINAPLAS 2022 brings under one roof the best solutions that manufacturers from Southeast Asia and from other parts of the world can utilize to boost their productivity and strengthen their competitiveness.
Enabling Smart Packaging Manufacture with Digitalization
Indonesia is a major potential market for technologies that will enable smart manufacturing where digitalization can play a significant role. The country’s technological transformation could add US$$2.8 trillion to the national economy by 2040, according to an estimate by its Department of Finance. The application of digital technology and the growing awareness of Indonesia’s industrial sector on the benefits of adopting Industry 4.0, along with digitalization and utilization of intelligent manufacturing processes, have started to gain ground among those in the plastics industry, and projected to push requirements for technologies to build digital factories.
The packaging industry is witnessing the fastest growth among the various plastics-dependent industries in Indonesia in terms of adherence to the smart manufacturing concept.
Aside from ensuring flexibility and improving profitability, smart packaging is now being embraced in many products – such as in foods and beverage, pharmaceuticals, etc. – to provide crucial information on product quality, extend shelf life, trace movement of the product in the supply chain, and for safety and protection. Indonesian plastics packaging manufacturers are becoming more aware that the only way to go is by implementing smart manufacturing through digitalization, not only to increase their profitability but also to meet the global trend towards sustainability. Real-time production information plus product traceability are benefits that smart manufacturing offers which Indonesian companies are now serious taking into consideration in order to stay competitive.
Effectively Managing Plastic Waste
As some leading F&B companies in Indonesia have been following the Industry 4.0 trends, they also see the importance of digitalization to meet their sustainability goals as they intensify their recycling to alleviate plastic packaging waste, especially single-use plastics. Members of the Packaging and Recycling Association for Indonesia’s Sustainable Environment (PRAISE) which established the Packaging Recovery Organization (PRO) have identified methods from waste collection to recycling. PRAISE members include PT Coca-Cola Indonesia, Danone-Aqua, PT Indofood Sukses Makmur, PT Nestle Indonesia, Tetra Pak Indonesia and Unilever Indonesia. Aside from upgrading their productivity through smart manufacturing process, these companies are supporting effective recycling by adopting smart packaging and labels for traceability.
One company, Coca-Cola Indonesia, has “Recycle Me” message on its package labels across all its brands and products as it seeks to create a World Without Waste. The message encourages consumers to recycle their PET plastic bottles or aluminum cans as the company commits to collect and recycle the equivalent of every bottle or can it sells globally by 2030. It also commits to make 100% of its packaging recyclable by 2025 and use at least 50% recycled material in its packaging by 2030. Coca-Cola, in partnership with Dynapack Asia, is also constructing Indonesia’s biggest bottle-to-bottle (rPET) recycling plant scheduled to become operational in 2022.
Another major packaging company, Unilever, is working with partners in Indonesia to help collect and process plastic packaging. This covers investments and partnerships in waste collection and processing, building capacity by buying recycled plastics, and supporting extended producer-responsibility schemes in which Unilever pays for the collection of its packaging. Unilever’s technology-led solution in Indonesia involves supporting urban communities to develop systems to collect and sell waste. A digital platform called ‘Google My Business’ enables consumers to find their nearest waste banks via Google Maps.
Nestlé and Project STOP have partnered for a material recovery facility in East Java, Indonesia. The facility is expected to reduce ocean plastic waste in the coastal areas of Indonesia. Project STOP, which aims to alleviate marine plastic pollution in Southeast Asia, is an initiative by Borealis and SYSTEMIQ, and designed to implement circular economy solutions in the region through effective waste management system.
In the area of smart packaging, even foreign companies are setting their sights into Indonesia’s vast market due to its large population. Baoshen Science & Applied Technologies Co., Ltd (BSN), a Chinese company that produces packaging materials for garment products (shoes, clothes and bags), furniture products, cosmetics, etc., has set up an operation at Indonesia’s Kendal Industrial Park. The construction of the factory started in August 2021 and is expected to be operational in June 2022. Since its founding in 1988, BSN has succeeded in becoming a “smart packaging” industry by establishing a Technology Center for RFID-based label design and production.
Source: CHINAPLAS 2022