Page 28 - Packaging News magazine March-April 2022

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BEVERAGE PACKAGING | www.packagingnews.com.au | March-April 2022
No time to waste
In the past five years, packaging manufacturing, disposal and resource recovery have come to the forefront of the national discussion surrounding sustainability and product stewardship, particularly in food and beverages, writes Geoff Parker, Australian Beverages Council CEO.
to ‘do the right thing’. Such confusion can often lead to containers ending in landfill rather than in the recycling stream. In fact the APCO CDS Material Flow Analysis, released early last year found that in 2018-2019 approximately 100,000 tonnes of CDS materials were not making it into the system in CDS eligible states. We estimate that to be almost 1.7 billion containers, a con- fronting number indeed.
RECYCLING CONFUSION
We fear this confusion about recy- cling and recyclability is endemic across the country. Whether this uncertainty leads to everything going into the red waste bin or the yellow bin through “wishcycling”, both are harmful to recovering through the CDS the cleanest waste material stream possible for recycling into new containers. This has led us to the posi- tion that national harmonisation of instructions for consumers in CDS and kerbside is essential to ensur- ing recyclate remains in the circular economy as food-grade material and doesn’t end up as textiles or landfill.
The other missed opportunity related to beverages, outside of the bil- lions of containers going to landfill each year, is bottle cap collection. Our own research and the important work of environmental clean-up organisa- tions have repeatedly demonstrated that caps are littered at a much higher rate than their respective containers. We find that this disparity is highest in areas which do not accept caps in CDS, kerbside, or both. Our consul- tations with the waste and recovery
GONE are the days of the “take, use, dispose” linear model, transition- ing instead to a philosophy which focuses more on design efficiency, consumer education and respon- sible end of life through reuse and recycling. I have seen this change
firsthand, in both the attitudes of con- sumers and the priorities of beverages companies when envisioning what their businesses look like both today and in the decades ahead.
As the proud voice of the non-alco- holic drinks industry in Australia, the Australian Beverages Council Limited (ABCL) is leading the sector on a range of sustainability issues. Through estab- lished container deposit schemes (CDS) the drinks industry is the only FMCG sector with an established extended producer responsibility framework in place and has been shaping resource recovery efforts through design, devel- opment, rollout and review nationwide. In recent years, our scope has expanded to helping ensure the multiple net- work operators within these schemes entrusted to collect our materials are as efficient and successful as possible.
On this journey, we have consulted with consumers, the waste industry,
scheme coordinators, regulators, all three levels of government and count- less other stakeholders with an aim to unite a supply chain ecosystem both passionate and driven to make a change. Thankfully, there has been no lack of enthusiasm. We have found that Australia is ready for a substantive shift in how we use, dispose of, and process packaging materials. Within this discussion, there are some key areas we are well-placed to advocate for, and that can lead to considerable positive change in Australia’s waste and recycling landscape.
Our key takeaway and underlying frustration through this process has been a recognition of the detrimental effect and missed opportunities that a non-harmonised, patchwork quilt approach federation model has had on CDS and kerbside collection net- works. As an example, the differences by state, territory, and even local coun- cil regarding bottle caps collection and accepted containers has proven cum- bersome at best and burdensome at worst. Through discussions we have found that this lack of harmonisation creates confusion for consumers try- ing to navigate this space of wanting
ABOVE: ABCL has an ambitious vision for what CDS can look like in the
future – it would include bottle cap collection along with
all commonly used plastic containers made from recyclable materials like PET, HDPE andPP.