The World Packaging Organization (WPO) has recently announced the winners of this year’s WorldStar Global Packaging Awards, which make up for the largest international packaging awards across the world. With the awards’ ceremony slowly approaching, we reveal the countries with the most winning entries of the competition, while showcasing some examples of the innovative packaging solutions that were presented this year.
provided by WPO’s website: https://www.worldpackaging.org/
Table of Contents
The World Packaging Organization
Founded in 1968, in Tokyo, the World Packaging Organization consists of national packaging institutes, associations and regional packaging groups that aim to promote education through conferences, publications and other special activities. All of the previously mentioned events are held in support of an international packaging design awards program, the WorldStar Global Packaging Awards, while also promoting contact and communication between various national packaging institutes and companies.
The WorldStar Global Packaging Awards
Since the first competition back in 1970, the WPO awards have been the preeminent global competition in packaging, highlighting the trends and challenges the packaging industry faces on a global scale. “It is always with pride and excitement that WPO announces the best of the best packaging innovation around the globe. The WorldStar Awards showcases how dynamic and technological the packaging is on a global level”, shared Luciana Pellegrino, President of the WPO.
With this year’s number of participating organizations reaching over 400 entries from more than 40 different countries, the top 5 winners by country are:
- Japan (28 wins)
- Germany (21 wins)
- Australia and New Zealand (16 wins)
- USA (12 wins)
- Brazil and Austria (11 wins each).
Companies that qualify for entering the competition must have already won a national or regional award in a packaging competition that is recognized by the WPO, within the last two years.
The actual award ceremony will be held on June 15th, during the “ProPak Asia” event in Thailand. During the event, WPO will announce the winners of its special categories (President’s Award, Sustainability Award, Marketing Award, and Packaging that Saves Food Award).
The Winning Companies
provided by WorldStar Global Packaging Awards’ website: https://worldstar.org//
Among the winning entries of the competition is the Greek flexible packaging converting company A.HATZOPOULOS S.A. and their PCR pouch, “X LOOP”, which won in the Packaging Materials and Components category by containing materials that incorporate post-consumer recycled PCR plastics, that actively contribute to the circularity of flexible packaging.
provided by WorldStar Global Packaging Awards’ website: https://worldstar.org//
Another great example of one of the winners in the Food category, is the collaboration of the two Finnish companies, UPM Specialty Papers and Fazer, who combined their powers to create a recyclable, fiber-based packaging solution for Fazer’s “Oat Rice Pies”. Due to the lack of any plastic lamination layer and the fact that the packaging product is based on the UPM ConfidioTM barrier paper, it’s great for recycling in regular fiber-recycling streams.
Conclusion
It is important for the future of the packaging industry that events like WorldStar Global Packaging Awards exist, since they provide to organizations across the world the chance to share their knowledge and expertise. Among the numerous countries and companies that participated in the event, there was a great deal of innovative packaging products and solutions, that exemplify the industry’s dedication to sustainability and circular economy.
