Seffi: What It Is and Why It Represents Our Sector
When we talk about industrial packaging, the conversation tends to centre on plastic and steel, leaving fibre drums in the background – a material with a solid track record and environmental credentials that deserve to be recognised. Behind the campaign to promote them in Europe is an organisation with more than three decades of experience: SEFFI.
In this article, we look at its history, how it works and the reasons why we are part of it as manufacturers.
Origins: an industry that decided to speak with one voice
SEFFI (Syndicat Européen de l’Industrie des Fûts Fibre) was founded in 1991, when European manufacturers of fibre drums decided that they needed to do more than simply compete with one another in each national market.
They needed a united voice in the face of European and international legislation on the handling, transport, recycling and disposal of packaging, and they needed to stand together in defence of a material which, then as now, was at a disadvantage in the media compared with plastic and steel.
More than three decades on, the association represents over 90 per cent of manufacturers in Western Europe, with a combined production of over ten million drums a year. We are one of those manufacturers.
How the association works
SEFFI is not a cumbersome bureaucratic organisation. It is run by a board which works throughout the year to achieve its objectives, and its members meet annually at the joint conference of the European Industrial Packaging Association.
It is at this forum and through the committee’s day-to-day work that a large part of the sector’s agenda is shaped: the development and review of product standards, monitoring of regulations governing the transport of dangerous goods (ADR, RID, ADNR, IMDG, ICAO) and direct contact with European and international standardisation committees in the fields of packaging and the environment.
The association even has a Chartered Environmentalist on its committee, which gives an idea of the extent to which environmental issues form part of its technical work and not just its public discourse.
In addition to manufacturing members, SEFFI accepts associate members: suppliers of accessories, distributors and other players in the supply chain who benefit from the same networking opportunities.
Companies such as Trisure and Technocraft, which specialise in closures and sealing systems for drums, fall into this category, and their membership of the association completes the industrial ecosystem that makes the final product possible.
Why we’re keen to get involved
Being a member of SEFFI is not merely a symbolic gesture. It is a way of playing a part in shaping the standards that we subsequently apply in our factories, of anticipating regulatory changes before they become an operational problem, and of sharing with other manufacturers – who are, in theory, competitors – a common interest in ensuring that the fibre drum remains a serious contender in the debate on industrial packaging.
SEFFI also acts as a bridge to the rest of the heavy packaging sector through the European Industrial Packaging Association, which also brings together steel drum manufacturers and industrial packaging refurbishers, and maintains links with leading trade fairs such as Interpack in Düsseldorf, as well as with national associations such as the UK’s Industrial Packaging Association.
A partnership with an underlying rationale
What sets SEFFI apart from a mere defensive trade association is that its arguments are based on concrete data: kraft fibre drums are made from wood sourced from sustainably managed forests, they are recycled by separating their components using specialised tools, and their carbon footprint during manufacture is significantly lower than that of their plastic or steel alternatives.
That is the argument the association puts forward to the regulatory bodies, and the one that we, as members, convey every day to our own clients when they are unsure which materials to choose.