Kai Buentemeyer shares packaging message from the Stelda stall

Stelda, a Bengaluru-based provider of innovative packaging solutions will exhibit at Interpack 2023. Stelda is demonstrating the Stelda-AR500 on-demand case packaging at the Interpack show. The company's adhesive-based case packaging solution offers the Stelda 4S promise of strength, security, sustainability and savings in secondary packaging. 

Kai Buentemeyer, director, Impel-Bindwel group spoke exclusively to the WhatPackaging? Team. he said, “There is simply no way a world population of eight billion can be supplied with essential foods and medicines, safely and reliably, without packaging. None whatsoever.” He added, ”Managers of the pharmaceutical and FMCG industries know this, most members of the chattering classes and a worryingly high number of politicians don’t. All the more important then for the world-wide community of packaging experts to finally come together again for an Interpack show in Düsseldorf after a six-year wait to re-fill on new ideas and revitalise contacts that are vital for cutting-edge development.”

We asked him what he expects to see at Interpack, he said, ““Packaging can be one line of defence against criminal and dangerous counterfeiting of valuable or even life-saving products.”

Later he spoke about his pet theme: sustainability. He said, “Economy will have to include sustainability as its most important element. Economy and sustainability become one and the same once ecological costs such as carbon-footprint or safe disposal are internalised.” 

Kai Buentemeyer added that “we are on a swift path to seeing such internalisation enacted by jurisdictions more or less world-wide.” He felt, “Until such a point, responsible users will voluntarily calculate charges for carbon-emissions or disposal cost. Economy, including sustainability, is driven by two simple factors: design for minimum weight and design for minimum complexity,” Buentemeyer added.

At Interpack 2023, he hopes to see solutions that drive the economy while maintaining safety and presentability. We asked him, how does he define packaging? He said, “Packaging that looks great while being made up of fewer components. Packaging that is light-weight and strong. Perhaps some quality control solutions using cutting-edge image processing and machine learning.”

During his role as the chairman of the board of the Printing and Paper Technology Association within the body of German Engineering Association VDMA, he helped set up Global Print which is an international federation of print and paper technology associations created to further the common interests and mutual understanding of manufacturers of printing, paper-making and converting machinery, equipment, and consumables. Buentemeyer served as the president of Global Print from 2012 to 2014. He is known for his passionate advocacy about the benefits of paper, print and packaging.