Page 7 - Packaging News magazine March_April 2023

Supermarkets plan soft plastics collection restart
In Brief
HUHTAMAKI ACQUIRES ITS AUS FOODSERVICE PACKAGING GROUP Huhtamaki has acquired full ownership of Huhtamaki Tailored Packaging (HTP), its Australian foodservice packaging distribution and wholesale group. HTP employs 130 people, and is today one of the largest importers and distributors of foodservice packaging in Australia. Huhtamaki acquired a majority stake in the business in 2018, and held approximately 76 per cent of the company prior to this transaction.
ORORA TO EXPAND VIC CAN MANUFACTURING Orora has applied to EPA Victoria for a development licence to install a second aluminium beverage can manufacturing line at its Dandenong South facility. The new multi-size canning line is projected to be in operation by June. The company expects growing cans volumes in Australia to be one of its key revenue drivers in the next financial year. Cans were the standout Australian performer for Orora in the first half of the financial year. The new line at Dandenong will add ten per cent to the company’s capacity. A new canning line is also planned for Orora’s Revesby site in NSW.
CHEP BUILDING SECOND QLD PALLET FACILITY CHEP has begun construction of its second Queensland facility, which will serve as a timber pallet repair and service centre, with an initial production capability to manage four million timber pallets. Due for completion in October 2023, the new facility will enable CHEP to provide customers with reusable timber pallets and provide increased capacity, capability and efficiency, CHEP says.
IN MARCH, THE supermarket-led Soft Plastic Taskforce unveiled the ‘Roadmap to Restart’, a plan
to run a pilot soft plastics collec- tion scheme in select stores to support a recycling programme by the end of the year, to replace the now-suspended REDcycle col- lection scheme.
This Roadmap was announced after REDcycle, which is now in liquidation, had accepted the offer made by the Soft Plastics Taskforce to take responsibil- ity for the 12,400 tonnes of soft plastic stored by REDcycle in warehouses around the country.
Under the plan, an initial in- store collection pilot is anticipated to launch in select Woolworths and Coles stores in late 2023 – provided that REDcycle’s exist- ing soft plastic stockpiles can be cleared prior. The new programme would then be gradually rolled out nationwide next year.
However, the Taskforce is unable to guarantee that enough domestic recycling capacity will exist by then to recycle the mixed polymer soft plastics. Current infrastructure capacity is limited and unable to process the amount of soft plastics collected through a supermarket bring-back pro- gramme, as amply demonstrated by the REDcycle collapse.
The Taskforce says it has plot- ted the reinstatement of in-store collection of household soft plas- tics to match the projected gradual increase in Australian soft plastic recycling capacity over the next year, anticipating that new recy- cling operators will launch, and existing processors will expand.
The main recycling partner for REDcycle material, Close the Loop, will have its soft plastics recycling line back on stream in the second half of the year, and this will be able to take 2500 tonnes a year from the taskforce/ supermarket collection source, but the recycler says it will also be taking more volume of soft plastics from other sources, such as direct
Above: Collection programme restart will not be without challenges.
council collections.
The Taskforce said that the
best way to accelerate nationwide access to soft plastic recycling is through continued investment in recycling facilities to bring for- ward existing plans to expand domestic capacity.
In the meantime, the super- markets intend to work through options to export the stockpile of 12,400 tonnes of REDcycle soft plastic to “trusted recycling facil- ities” overseas, which they say would need to have the necessary transparency, traceability and government approvals. This would allow access to advanced recycling beyond Australia’s existing domes- tic capabilities.
A spokesperson for the Taskforce said: “For most Australian households, the only avenue to recycle their soft plas- tic waste has been through the REDcycle bins available at Coles and Woolworths supermarkets.
“Restoring public trust in soft plastic recycling is paramount, and the Taskforce will reintro- duce soft plastic collections when it can be confident that it will be properly recycled. We owe it to consumers to get this right.”
The Taskforce said it recognises that in the long-term, more soft plastic could be diverted from landfill if future schemes are
more convenient for consumers and can meet soft plastic at the point where it becomes waste – the household.
“It is crucial that this oppor- tunity to rethink Australia’s future national soft plastic recy- cling model is not overlooked,” a spokesperson said.
The Taskforce commended the trials underway in Victoria, NSW and SA for the National Plastics Recycling Scheme, a new kerbside model to collect more household soft plastics developed by the Australian Food and Grocery Council with funding support from the Australian Federal Government’s National Product Stewardship Investment Fund.
The scheme is based on a model which would see food and gro- cery manufacturers pay a levy to support the recycling of the soft plastics they create. It is currently being trialled in select areas.
The Victorian Government has announced a future state-wide rollout of kerbside soft plastic recycling, pending the success of the current NPRS trial. The Taskforce applauds this move and strongly encourages state and territory governments to support their local councils to do the same to ensure as much household soft plastic is saved from landfill as possible. ■
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