Singapore Packaging Star Awards Ceremony 2025 - Dr Janil Puthucheary

1. Good evening. Thank you for inviting me to join you here today at the Singapore Packaging Star Awards Ceremony. Today, we are here to honour innovation and creativity in packaging designs, in pursuit of environmental sustainability.

2. Earlier, some of you attended the Asia Packaging Forum. You would have heard expert speakers from Singapore and beyond share insights on the role that packaging plays in a circular economy. I hope that those of you who attended the Forum found new perspectives on packaging and connected with like-minded individuals, and develop plans to drive meaningful change in our industry.

Importance of Managing Packaging Waste Well

3. Packaging is an essential part of business and everyday life. It ensures products reach our consumers safely. It conveys important information about the products. It is also a key tool for companies to establish brand identity. But with the growth of the global packaging industry comes the mounting challenge of addressing packaging waste. It is increasingly important that we design sustainably and use packaging responsibly.

4. Packaging waste makes up about one-third of domestic waste disposed of in Singapore. It is generated in high quantities, and has a relatively low recycling rate today. Packaging typically consists of plastic, paper and cardboard. And if we look at the recycling rates of these materials, in 2024, only about 5% of plastic waste and 32% of paper and cardboard waste generated were recycled. This means that more waste ends up at Semakau, Singapore’s only landfill which is expected to be full in 10 years. With that reality, more raw materials will need to be extracted, processed, and used to create packaging that eventually will be disposed of. We need to do better. This is why packaging is a priority waste stream under our Zero Waste Masterplan.

Efforts to Promote Sustainable Packaging Practices

5. Tackling this priority waste stream requires collective action.

6. The Government will commence the beverage container return scheme next year. This is a scheme that adopts an Extended Producer Responsibility approach to manage one part of packaging waste in Singapore - beverage containers. Under the scheme, all beverage containers will have a refundable deposit, to encourage consumers to return empty beverage containers for recycling.

7. To create awareness and build capabilities in companies in their journey towards sustainable packaging, NEA launched the Packaging Partnership Programme, or PPP for short, in 2021. With over 570 members, the PPP serves as an important platform for industry collaboration on sustainable packaging efforts. Under the PPP, NEA conducts regular outreach sessions and trainings, and organises or co-organises large-scale industry forums such as this morning’s Asia Packaging Forum.

8. The industry has also stepped up to promote sustainable packaging design. In March this year, the Alliance for Action on Packaging Waste Reduction for the E-commerce Sector, which comprises 14 companies across the e-commerce supply chain, published a set of practical guidelines on sustainable e-commerce packaging. The guidelines provide a comprehensive list of practical solutions tailored to various types of e-commerce packaging, and aims to help companies make informed decisions on how to reduce, reuse and recycle packaging waste.

9. All of these are the different efforts by the Government, by industry, by industry associations. You know the work is there and this is stuff we have to collaborate and take collective action on.

Celebrating Innovation and Excellence

10. Today, at this event, we are celebrating people who are showing us the way. They are exemplars of the type of approach we would like all of us to take together.

11. For example, Greenpac (Singapore) Pte Ltd improved the packaging design for Imaging Modules, which are highly sensitive and delicate instruments used in chemistry labs. The packaging design accounts for the instrument’s fragile and irregularly shaped nature. It has to prioritise impact resistance, as well as optimise packaging size and weight. This is a difficult problem to solve, given the product they are dealing with. The improved design has resulted in a 20% reduction in materials used and total weight, and saved the company $300,000 in annual freight costs. This is not the first time Greenpac has won the awards, so congratulations to Greenpac for your continued work on the sustainability journey.

12. One of our student winners, Phoebe Wong from Ngee Ann Polytechnic, has designed an eco-friendly shoe box, which not only allows users to carry two shoe boxes at any time, but also doubles up as a modular shoe rack. You can see the design consideration. The key thing is that it is a multi-purpose, multi-use design made out of sustainable materials or potentially sustainable materials. A product like that requires us, as consumers, to make some choices. Choices to purchase a product that comes in sustainable packaging. Choices then to reuse that packaging in the appropriate way. Eventually, you’ll have to make a choice to recycle that packaging.

13. The work we celebrate today needs to be partnered by us as consumers. And part of that partnership with consumers requires the industry to continue to emphasise these important behavioural shifts that we need to make. People need to see and hear these messages in your packaging and as part of your marketing.

14. Well done to Greenpac, to Phoebe, and all the winners today for continuing to walk this journey and reinforcing how we can move in this important direction. Your achievements demonstrate the meaningful impact that your creativity and environmental stewardship can bring.

Conclusion

15. Embedding sustainable packaging practices into our business processes is a shared responsibility and an opportunity. By working together and continuously innovating, we can reduce waste, conserve resources, extend the lifespan of Semakau, and build a greener, more sustainable, more resilient Singapore for the next generation.

16. Congratulations once again. Thank you and have a wonderful evening.