The Australian food and beverage sector has stepped up to the task of creating a circular economy for plastics, with 12 manufacturers in the APAC region signing on as founding members of the ANZPAC Plastics Pact.
Three years in the making, the pact sets four ambitious targets for 2025:
- eliminating unnecessary and problematic plastic packaging through redesign, innovation and alternative (reuse) delivery models;
- 100 per cent of plastic packaging to be reusable, recyclable or compostable packaging by 2025;
- increasing plastic packaging collected and effectively recycled by 25 per cent for each geography within the ANZPAC region; and
- achieving an average of 25 per cent recycled content in plastic packaging across the region.
The pact will be administered by the Australian Packaging Covenant Organisation (APCO) and represents the complete plastics supply chain – from leading brands, packaging manufacturers and retailers, to resource recovery leaders, government institutions and NGOs.
APCO CEO Brooke Donnelly said: “As well as a growing problem, plastic is also fundamentally an international one, and to tackle plastic waste effectively we need to find solutions that aren’t constrained by national borders or old ways of thinking.
“What we’re really trying to address here is a systemic problem that says the plastics system is actually broken. Our take, make and dispose approach means too much plastics waste is ending up in landfill.
“If no action is taken, by 2040 the volume of plastic on the market would double, and the amount of plastic entering the ocean would almost triple. So, we really need a radical intervention.”
Some of the food and beverage manufacturers and brands are Aldi, Coles, Woolworths, Mondelez Australia, Asahi Beverages, Arnott’s, Nestlé Australia, and Unilever Australia.
Coles chief executive commercial and express Greg Davis said signing the Pact is part of the group’s recently launched Together to Zero sustainability strategy, including its commitment to remove all single-use plastic tableware from its stores by 1 July 2021. Coles has also announced a joint feasibility study into an Australian-first advanced recycling facility.
“As one of Australia’s largest retailers, Coles understands the importance of working collaboratively to find a more sustainable future for plastic packaging,” Davis said.
For Aldi, becoming a signatory demonstrated its commitment to industry innovation. The company has already phased out single-use plastics such as tableware and plastic cotton buds from its range, saving 322 tonnes of plastic and 357 million plastic cotton bud stems from entering the waste stream.
Woolworths head of sustainability Adrian Cullen said even though the company has removed thousands of tonnes of plastics from its packaging and stores, there is more to do and it can’t be done alone.
“The Plastics Pact is a first of its kind opportunity for the entire industry and every level of the supply chain to rally around this challenge and collaborate on solutions that reduce plastic waste for the benefit of the environment and generations to come,” Cullen said.
The Plastics Pact network is currently active in the UK, US, France, the Netherlands, Portugal, Chile, South Africa, Canada and Poland.
The European Plastics Pact was the first regional initiative to join the network in March 2020, and ANZPAC follows suit as the second regional Pact in the network.
For more information on the ANZPAC Plastics Pact, or to find a list of the entire members list, check out PKN’s Packaging News' report here.
