Last July 11, the water and packaging intercluster day took place, coordinated by the Catalan Water Partnership and the Packaging Cluster to provide solutions for water management in the sector in the current context of drought.

The aim of the day, held at the offices of the Packaging Cluster, and which had the participation of more than 15 companies from both clusters, was to discuss technological solutions and success stories that have been carried out to reduce water consumption in the paper and packaging industries, and explain how these restrictions can affect and how to deal with a possible savings plan in the context of the current drought. The session was opened by Mireia Andreu Robert, Innovation Manager of the Packaging Cluster, who introduced the conference and announced the program. Mireia highlighted "the initiative to do joint projects and synergies between the water and packaging sectors". The session continued with the presentation on water management in a water emergency context, by Xavier Amores Bravo, Cluster Manager of Catalan Water Partnership, where he emphasized that "We are in a situation of adaptation to the drought, and we must be more and more efficient in reusing and optimizing water resources”. Xavier Amores stated that almost a quarter of the territory is in a state of emergency or alert, especially Catalonia, the south of Extremadura, Castile-La Mancha and Andalusia, and that in areas of Europe where water was not a problem now is being. The Savings Plan of the Catalan Water Agency offers tools and has some flexibility "It takes us in alert, exceptional and emergency situations. The majority of Catalonia is exceptional". In this state there is a maximum use of 230 liters per inhabitant per day, the refilling of public swimming pools is only permitted for those that are newly built or the result of a rehabilitation and the prohibition of watering, except for the survival water During the session, water challenges in the industrial sector were raised: adaptation to climate change and drought, optimization, efficiency, circularity and compliance with new requirements and the more conscientious and demanding demand in the field of sustainability. Finally, the success stories and technological solutions that have been carried out to reduce water consumption in the paper and packaging industries were presented. Carlos Serrano, from the company AonChip, explained the IOT solutions for the efficiency of water consumption in the packaging sector. Miguel López and Mikel Morras de Cimico presented two successful cases of biofilm technologies in the paper industries. Jordi Gabarró from Telwesa, presented solutions for the reuse of water from the treatment of waste water in the paper sector. For his part, Raúl Alonso from Adasa, explained a case of dumping 0 water in the paper industry and Albert Bartrolí from Aeris Tecnologías Ambientales, presented the energy recovery and the treatment of waste inks and glues in the paper industry. The day was a great success, as several synergies were generated between the members of both clusters that may lead to future collaborations to promote projects and new initiatives. The participating companies were: Adasa, Aeris, Agbar, Alzamora Group, Aonchip, Carburos Metalicos, Cimico, Decapulp, Dr Canicio Consulting Chemist, Ecolab, Eurecat, Grup Hinojosa, Kurita, Leitat, Menshen Iber, Protecnia, Samtack, Telwesa, TM2 . The clusters act as a hub and as a collaborative environment to facilitate cooperation between companies, research centers, legislators and other institutions that promote sustainability and provide SMEs with access to new skills, resources and markets.