PAC NEXT – The Packaging Association

Emterra CEO, Emmie Leung, and Business Development Manager, Paulina Leung, are contributing their experience and ideas to an industry forum called PAC NEXT that has brought together a number of industry sectors, government agencies and NGOs to explore, evaluate and mobilize innovative packaging end-of-life solutions.

The Packaging Association has been the voice of packaging in Canada since the 1950s. It created PAC NEXT in 2011 as a centre of excellence for a world without packaging waste. Through technical resource groups, education and guidance documents, process mapping, pilot programs and workshops it focuses on optimizing, mobilizing and mitigating risk of end-of-life solutions for packaging design, recovery (collection and processing) and end markets.

Emmie and Paulina are members of two technical resource groups, System Optimization and Best Practices that Support Harmonization.

Chaired by Al Metauro of Cascade Recovery and Norm Lee of the Region of Peel, System Optimization is examining the origins of the current material recovery system which, due to a lack of harmonization and consistent infrastructure support, impacts the cost, quality and quantity of recovered materials. This group's task is to better understand critical aspects of the current system and to develop recommendations for improving the transition of resources from the curb to viable recovery marketplaces.

The Best Practices that Support Harmonization technical committee is co-chaired by Scott Cassel, Product Stewardship Institute and Carol Patterson, TDL Group. It is charged with developing a fact base of global best practices related to extended producer responsibility (EPR) and other recovery policies with a focus on measurable cost, quality and quantity metrics. This resource information will enhance PAC NEXT's capability as an information resource to federal, provincial, state and municipal governments in developing proactive policies.

Click here to learn more about PAC NEXT.