The 2025 National Packaging Targets pave the way for greener management of packaging waste. Established under the Australian Packaging Covenant, this set of standards has spurred an onset of sustainability-centric legislation across the country. But what does that mean for your business?
Packaging suppliers, distributors and brands who are not taking steps to evolve their practices now may face significant disruption and expense in the not-so-distant future. In other words, it’s important to ensure your stakeholders understand and implement measures to fulfill their duties sooner rather than later.
Below, we’ve put together a comprehensive guide on the Australian Packaging Covenant and its 2025 National Packaging Targets – as well as what your business should be planning for.
Established in 1999, the Australian Packaging Covenant is an agreement between the Australian government and industry stakeholders that aims to reduce the impact of packaging on our environment.
The Australian Packaging Covenant Organisation (APCO) is responsible for leading this sustainable packaging initiative. APCO is working with our governments and industry to ensure packaging materials are sustainably designed, used and recycled.
As a proud APCO Member, Favourite Packaging is committed to helping our clients implement measures that support the Covenant’s objectives – specifically, the 2025 National Packaging Targets.
Introduced in 2018, the National Packaging Targets are a set of sustainable packaging objectives to achieve by 2025. A crucial step towards a circular economy, these standards apply to any packaging that is manufactured, utilised or sold within Australia.
2025 Targets under the Australian Packaging Covenant are as follows:
The Sustainable Packaging Guidelines (SPGs) are designed to support eco-friendly packaging design and production. These SPGs help Australian businesses to incorporate the 10 Sustainable Packaging Principles into their processes.
APCO has also created a number of Quickstart Guides to assist the design of recyclable packaging.
The first step to achieving a circular economy for packaging is to ensure each item of packaging is able to be reused, recycled or composted.
Current progress towards this Target is strong, with 89% of packaging in Australia able to be reused, recycled and/or composted.
At Favourite Packaging, our biodegradable packaging products are 100% compostable. Manufactured from environmentally-friendly materials, these sustainable solutions reduce landfill and return rich nutrients to the soil to support future plant growth. Learn more about compostable packaging.
The second Target aims to increase the amount of plastic packaging being recycled or composted for subsequent use. With plastic packaging having a lower recovery rate than most other materials, APCO supports several initiatives to help Australia reach its 70% goal.
With a focus on eliminating packaging waste and pollution, the ANZPAC Plastics Pact unifies central stakeholders in Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands to work towards a circular economy for plastic. Meanwhile, the Australasian Recycling Label (ARL) Program is a packaging labelling scheme that educates brands on how to design recyclable packaging and consumers on how to recycle it correctly after use.
For a successful recycling cycle, recovered packaging must be reused at its optimum value as many times as possible. With APCO’s 2018/2019 data showing a 38% average of recycled content being included in packaging, Australia is making significant progress towards the goal of 50%.
To help businesses achieve this Target, APCO is in the process of creating a collection of online resources, such as guidelines on using recycled content to produce various materials.
This final Target is critical to shifting our economy to environmentally-friendly packaging. By phasing out single-use plastics, Australia can encourage the use of recycled content in packaging, lower packaging consumption and waste rates and increase recycling rates.
APCO has deemed certain single-use plastic packaging items as priorities for phase-out, such as EPS food and beverage containers. As a result, multiple states have already passed (or are in the process of passing) laws that prohibit these packaging items from being manufactured and sold.
Want to learn more about tackling this Target? The APCO Action Plan for Problematic and Unnecessary Single-Use Plastic Packaging is designed to support Australia’s packaging supply chains as they aim to adopt more sustainable approaches. It offers a framework that helps businesses to pinpoint opportunities to remove, redesign and replace problematic packaging practices with innovative solutions.
All Australian businesses are (or will) play a pivotal role in reaching the 2025 Targets. Below are two key measures your organisation can take to help ensure it meets its duties.
Learn about the implications of APCO’s 2025 National Packaging Targets now, so that your organisation has sufficient time to take action. At Favourite Packaging, we recommend:
Utilising APCO’s National Consumer Education Campaign resources to ensure your business’ communications around sustainable packaging are accurate and consistent.
With a focus on eliminating packaging waste and pollution, the ANZPAC Plastics Pact unifies central stakeholders in Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands to work towards a circular economy for plastic. Meanwhile, the Australasian Recycling Label (ARL) Program is a packaging labelling scheme that educates brands on how to design recyclable packaging and consumers on how to recycle it correctly after use.
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