In an exclusive interview with Packaging 360, Scott Jackson, General Manager – Amcor Healthcare SEA & Japan addresses a host of issues relevant to sustainable packaging & how the company’s recent initiatives will lead them on the path for the benefit of the consumer.
Packaging 360 : How Amcor will deliver on its promise to make all its packaging recyclable or reusable by 2025?
Scott Jackson: Innovation is central to Amcor’s approach to sustainability. We spend USD$100 million a year globally on research and development, focused on delivering on our 2025 pledge. Amcor’s sustainability strategy goes beyond just our pledge to make all our packaging recyclable or reusable. We have an overarching strategy that sets a clear direction on safety, operations, and talent. Through our longstanding EnviroAction program we are also reducing our greenhouse gas emissions and our operational waste. We are also focused on delivering the three core requirements of responsible packaging: innovation, infrastructure, and consumer participation.
Already we have made significant progress toward meeting our pledge. In FY21, $7.7 billion of Amcor’s revenue was from packaging that was designed to be recycled, comprising 74% of our total production. We made significant progress in FY21 with regards to our flexible packaging portfolio, which has historically presented the biggest design challenges for recyclability.
Packaging 360: How the new Tuas plant will drive Amcor’s sustainable healthcare packaging offerings
Scott Jackson: The new facility in Singapore uses printing technology that is water-based and produces no solvent emissions. Its layered blown films can produce ready-to-recycle products, while its new multi-layered film technology provides scope for new product innovation with a lower carbon footprint. Our focus is to drive advancements in co-extrusion blown film technology, especially for sustainable packaging that fully satisfies the healthcare industry’s stringent safety and regulatory requirements. By having innovation capabilities closer to our customers, we can be nimbler and help shorten the time to market with rapid prototyping and testing.
Packaging 360 : Please elaborate on Upcoming trends in manufacturing and whether a truly sustainable packaging future is close to the horizon
Scott Jackson: There will always be a role for packaging: to keep food fresh longer, to enable broader distribution of medicines, and to keep healthcare equipment sterile. Amcor is leading the industry toward truly responsible packaging. Our innovations set the benchmark for sustainability and make us the partner of choice for customers committed to responsible packaging. There is more work to be done, but our long-term strategy is already driving real progress – for Amcor, for our customers, and for the environment.
Packaging 360 : What is Amcor doing in other countries that can potentially be followed in Singapore or vice versa ?
Scott Jackson: Innovations in co-extrusion blown film technology developed in Singapore will be shared across Amcor’s global innovation network and vice versa. Realizing the benefits of our innovations depends on improving the collection and management of packaging after it has been used. Amcor works proactively in partnership with waste collectors, recyclers, non-government organizations (NGOs), academics, cross-industry bodies, and others to improve infrastructure and share our expertise. In August, we announced plans to construct two new state-of-the-art innovation centres. The new facilities in Ghent, Belgium, and Jiangyin, China, will welcome customers as of mid-2022 and our broader network will allow customers to tap into Amcor’s leading expertise and packaging development capabilities. Our global footprint means that this expertise can be shared at scale so that lessons learned in one market can be applied elsewhere.
About Scott Jackson
General Manager – Amcor Healthcare SEA & Japan
Leader of the Amcor Healthcare Packaging business for SEA and Japan. Scott has responsibility for managing the business across these regions with manufacturing primarily from the Singapore and Malaysian facilities.
Scott joined Amcor over 10 years ago in Zurich, Switzerland in the Strategic Development group focussing on cross-border M&A, international strategic development and project management. He moved to Australia in 2014 as the Director of Special Projects in the Office of the CEO and following that was appointed Chief Financial Officer for Amcor’s ANZ business. He held that role for 4 years before relocating to South East Asia in 2019.
Executive MBA (TRIUM – London School of Economics, HEC Paris, New York University), Monash University Australia, BCom; Member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Australia; Master’s in Finance.
About AMCOR
Amcor is a global leader in developing and producing responsible packaging for food, beverage, pharmaceutical, medical, home and personal-care, and other products. Amcor works with leading companies around the world to protect their products and the people who rely on them, differentiate brands, and improve supply chains through a range of flexible and rigid packaging, specialty cartons, closures, and services. The company is focused on making packaging that is increasingly light-weighted, recyclable and reusable, and made using an increasing amount of recycled content. Around 46,000 Amcor people generate $13 billion in annual sales from operations that span about 225 locations in 40-plus countries. NYSE: AMCR; ASX: AMC
Dr. R. Rangaprasad, is currently Business Head, Packaging 360, a Mumbai based knowledge service provider vertical under Catalyzing New Technology (CNT) Expositions & Services LLP. Packaging 360 is a comprehensive knowledge sharing ecosystem for the Indian packaging industry (www.packaging360.in).
Dr. R. Rangaprasad is a chemical technologist by training having earned his Ph.D. (Tech) degree from UDCT (now ICT) in 1992.
