Empack – Do you think that meetings like Empack Madrid help to raise awareness about sustainability? Alex – One of the most important things to reach the goal is partnerships and having places where there is the opportunity to meet all the players in the industry for two days is the perfect place to create the partnerships to come together and say how do we overcome this challenge? Because you might have to partner with your competitor to overcome the challenge and it’s wonderful that Empack provides this space. Empack – How should we address the reduction of plastic use and consumption? Alex – Plastic is a wonderful element that has revolutionised human life. Without plastic, medicine would not exist as we know it, we would be back in the 1940s, with far less hygiene and no sterile quality elements needed to save the lives of thousands. Now, the problem is that we have devised uses for plastic that are perhaps not the best for an element that photodegrades, leaving particles for years in the environment, generating the impact it generates on biodiversity and human life. So, in my opinion, the key is to review the use, the mentality and the utility we have given to this element. Empack – There is a lot of talk about local and seasonal consumption. Is this solution realistic in such a globalised world? Alex – In my opinion, it is not a question of black or white, the key is not the choice between consuming everything from everywhere or buying only from the shop under your house or from your grandmother’s garden, it is not a reality in the world we live in today. What is clear is that today we are very unbalanced towards one side, that is to say, in every supermarket in every town or city in Spain, there are mangoes that do not come from here, that come by plane. Is this really sustainable for the planet? Maybe we have to reduce mango consumption, because if all of us here buy at least one mango from a supermarket, the consequences could be devastating to try to satisfy that demand. I think the key is to find a balance between the two, between what we can consume occasionally, or in small portions let’s say, that come from outside, and meeting our basic needs with local or proximity products.   Empack – Should companies promote their technical services so that people can repair their goods? Alex – There is a double responsibility here. Firstly, the responsibility of manufacturers and producers, and the fact is that, nowadays, in order to get something repaired, it is really complex just to try to find someone who can do the repair. Besides, probably all, or almost all, the components of that object will be disposable and will not be used to create another product like it. I think that the industry at the production level has to rethink all the components of the products they manufacture and look for ways to use them to manufacture other similar products after a certain period of time, because otherwise, we condemn this product and its components to have a single life cycle before ending up in the rubbish. The second is the responsibility of consumers, who nowadays have a deep-rooted belief that new is synonymous with better. We are taught from our upbringing that to prove our status we must buy the latest model of the fashionable brand. That’s why people crowd the launch queues to be “the first to…”. I think there is a clear need for self-recognition that we are solving by consuming the new. In my opinion, we must work on the educational part so that our self-esteem, little by little, is not so closely related to consumption. As I said, I think it is more of a collective conscience that we still have to reach, but I see that it is already starting to appear in some groups of society, and more and more people are realising that they no longer need seasonal clothes just because it is the season and the sales have arrived. In short, for me the key lies in this dual producer-consumer responsibility, because until both parties get on with it, neither of them will take full responsibility. Empack – Do you think there could be a niche market there? Alex – Of course, this is a trend that has developed over the last 5 years and today there are companies that have found a clear niche in the sector by fixing products to give them a second life. The clearest examples that come to mind are those in the telephone sector, as neither a producer, manufacturer or operator is willing to fix that product, as it is much more profitable for them that we consume a new product. I definitely believe that there is a sea of opportunities here for those who know how to see them and take advantage of them. Empack – Any practical advice for a company in the packaging sector to reduce its carbon footprint? Alex – There is no one who knows the needs of a company better than the people who are part of it. So, I invite companies to do a round of questions or brainstorming in their next meeting, or in an email to their teams asking them precisely what measures they think could be implemented in the company to reduce its impact on the environment, or how to make the company’s processes more efficient, for example, in short, an open question, because maybe with a single question, in a single email, there are a lot of answers.