Page 52 - Packaging News Magazine Nov-Dec2020

52 DECADES IN REVIEW | PKN 60 YEARS SPECIAL
Sustainability in the spotlight
This is the decade when sustainability shifts from buzzword to business plan, the plastic bag becomes a much-flogged political hobbyhorse, and the bioplastics sector gets up and running. Green is in, greenwash is out and the industry innovates to reduce its environmental impact.
2000
◆ Amcor announces the merger of its two Australasian packaging businesses, Containers and Fibre Packaging, into Amcor Packaging Australasia.
◆ Southcorp Packaging and United Distillers & Vintners have launched Australia’s first pre-mixed ‘alcopop’ in PET with an eye on the special event and night-club market.
◆ Ken Mackenzie is appointed group gen- eral manager of the Amcor Flexibles divi- sion. He goes on to become Group CEO of Amcor until June 2015, succeeded by cur- rent CEO Ron Delia.
◆ ACI Glass [owned by US glassmaker Owens-Illinois which bought it in 1998] completes the final stage of a $150 million upgrade of its Adelaide plant. And Amcor announces it will build a $130 million glass plant for wine bottles in South Australia, which will take it head-to-head with ACI, at the time Australia’s sole manufacturer of glass containers.
2001
◆ PET packaging continues to grow, with the Australian industry reported to be worth $350 million.
◆ VisyPak is the new name for Southcorp Packaging, with parent Visy Industries now in command of $3 billion-plus per annum in packaging revenues in several countries, including the US.
PLASTIC GETS A BAGGING
The ubiquitous plastic shopping bag
gains ‘star status’ on political
platforms; it’s labelled by green
lobbyists as an environmental evil and
proposals are made to ban it altogether.
In 2003, Coles Bay in Tasmania becomes
the first town in Australia to ban plastic
check-out bags in all its retail outlets. In 2006,
an independent report by Allen Consulting says phasing out plastics bags in Australia could cost the country more than $1 billion – a figure estimated at around four times the cost of the environmental damage they cause. In 2009, South Australia issues a state- wide ban of lightweight polyethylene shopping bags.
2002
◆ The bioplastics sector grows legs... Plantic Technologies hunts for $6 million to get started with production on a new plastic alternative after some $10 million has been spent on R&D. Meanwhile, production of Nature-Works PLA commences at a green- field plant in Blair Nebraska; it’s the first global-scale manufacturing facility capable of making commercial-grade plastic packag- ing from renewable sources.
◆ New player in the $80 million-plus inkjet- laser marking systems sector, Tronics opens an office in Perth and announces double revenues to over $30 million per annum.
◆ UK pack giant Rexam sells its last opera- tional offshoot in Australia, Rexam Metallising, to a group of private investors
◆ Amcor is to build a second glass furnace at its existing wine bottle facility in Gawler, South Australia, costing $125 million.
◆ Shorko sets up Australia’s first metallised film plant in Wodonga, and invests $9 mil- lion in new technology.
2004
◆ The premier of NSW, Bob Carr endorses comments by Visy chairman Richard Pratt condemning the federal government’s refusal to ratify the Kyoto Protocol. Pratt says it is “an outrage that a few so-called
MILLENNIUM MARKETING
00s
◆ Big names are rushing to sign the National
Packaging Covenant [precursor of the in a new company called Optimet. Australian Packaging Covenant], with ◆ Visy acquires Coca-Cola Amatil’s PET retailer Woolworths finally coming to the manufacturing operations, which makes
While some companies are preparing for potential technological hazards as the millennium dawns, some are making the most of the milestone.
Among these are Southcorp Packaging and KAAL Australia, which develop a claimed world-first in aluminium containers – the Laser Can – using micro- engraving to press the metallic surface of the aluminium into a patterned shape to create hologram-like images.
party. There are 207 signatories. [This num- Visy the market leader in PET ber stands at 1500-plus today] manufacturing.
◆ A ‘quantum leap’ in plastics recycling,
Visy says, has been achieved by its Visy
Plastics operation in Victoria with the US
FDA approving its process for recycling PET ◆ Initial production of the first biodegrad- plastic for food-contact packaging. able plastic film made in Australia com- ◆ Australian Paper and Detpack join forces mences at Plantic’s $1.5 million plant in with a ‘million paper bags’ promotion, with Laverton North, Victoria.
bags heavily discounted to reach prices ◆ RFID starts making headlines, touted as comparable to plastic bags. The campaign ‘the next big thing’.
hits a brick wall at Woolworths and Coles, ◆ Impregnating packs with aromas joins in- but gets encouraging response from pack chilling or heating cans as the cutting specialty stores. edge of packaging technology.
2003
bottle
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