Page 8 - Packaging News Magazine May-June 2018

NEWS
www.packagingnews.com.au May-June 2018
DIARY
Nestlé’s no-landfill pledge
IF NESTLÉ has its way, none of its packaging will end up in landfill or as litter in the future.
And, says the food com- pany, the world’s environ- mental situation is urgent.
Last month, Nestlé an- nounced its ambition to make 100 per cent of its packaging recyclable or re-usable by 2025.
The company wants none of its packaging, including plas- tics, to find their home in landfill or as litter, which means minimising the impact of packaging on the environ- ment now.
Nestlé CEO Mark Schneider says tackling plastic waste re- quires a collective approach.
“We are committed to find- ing improved solutions to re- duce, re-use and recycle so we can achieve 100 per cent recy- clable or reusable packaging by 2025, and we hope others will join us,” he says.
In Australia and New Zea- land, Nestlé has started imple- menting labelling to help con- sumers recycle correctly, with new labels to appear on Allen’s lollies this year.
Nestlé was one of the first to adopt the Australian Recy-
Nestlé is one of the first adopters of the Australian Recycling Label (ARL),
which outlines what product packaging is made from so consumers can correctly recycle.
cling Label, which has been designed to communicate what product packaging is made from so consumers can correctly recycle.
The scheme, developed by Planet Ark, the Australian Packaging Covenant Organ- isation, and PREP Design, recognises that most con- sumers want to recycle, but
need clearer information.
In the future, Nestlé’s focus will remain on three areas. It will look at eliminating non- recyclable plastics; encourag- ing the use of plastics that al- low better recycling rates; and eliminating or changing com- plex combinations of packag- ing materials. ■
Plastic-eating system could change the game
AS AUSTRALIA looks for new ways of handling waste follow- ing China’s decision to stop processing its recyclables, a South Australian man is searching for investors to help build a commercial system that converts waste plastic into biogas.
Scientist David Thompson will this month file an applica- tion for patent protection for his POET System, which uses an- aerobic digestion technology to turn a range of plastics, includ- ing polyethylene, polypropyl- ene, polystyrene and expanded polystyrene, into methane.
The process also produces inert, organic by-products that can be used as garden fertiliser and mulch.
Thompson is looking for an investor to help build a demon-
stration plant capable of pro- cessing, initially, 5000 tonnes of plastic a year.
He said there had been sig- nificant global interest in his invention but potential buyers generally wanted to see a work- ing demonstration plant rather than just certified test results before committing.
“Everyone wants to be the first to be the second in line,” Thompson, the POET Systems CEO, said.
“Because we’ve done such an enormous amount of validation around controlling the degradation of plastics in a safe and environ- ment-friendly way, it’s led us to this position of being able to get the POET System up to a
point where we now know what we need to put in and how to operate it.
“The frustration has been in finding the person or company prepared to ‘take a punt’ and allow us to move forward.”
The start-up company is based in Adelaide and is look- ing for an investment of about AU$2.5 million to help it build the 100-tonne a week plant. ■
8
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