PACKWINE Speaker Alison Appleby Sustainable packaging and the wine industry

Sustainable packaging and the wine industry

Alison Appleby, member services manager at the Australian Packaging Covenant Organisation (APCO) was one of the speakers at the 2022 PACKWINE Forum & Expo. In her presentation she discussed the 2025 National Packaging Targets and Australia’s current packaging landscape.

We’re working towards a circular economy in Australia,” said Alison Appleby, explaining that, traditionally, packaging materials have simply moved from a state of raw material through to the end point of disposal. “Now we’re looking to keep those materials in production for use and recycling to avoid that end of life disposal.” The Australian Packaging Covenant Organisation (APCO) is charged by government to lead the delivery of the 2025 National Packaging Targets which were set in 2018 supported by all levels of government and industry. The targets are: • 100 per cent of packaging to be reusable, recyclable or compostable; • 70% of plastic packaging recycled or composted; • An average of 50% recycled content across all packaging; and • Phasing out problematic and unnecessary single-use plastic packaging. When looking into the packaging landscape, Appleby said the latest available data from 2019-20 shows there are “some losses in the system”. “In 2019-20, we had 6.3m tonnes of packaging material placed on the market. Of that, 14% was not recyclable by design, which left 5.4m tonnes of packaging that was recyclable. “But of that, 24% was not collected. This could be for any numbers of reasons – perhaps the material didn’t have correct disposal labelling so consumers may not have been aware that it was recyclable, so it wasn’t entered into the recycling stream. “Of the 3.9m tonnes of packaging material that was collected for recycling, 3.4m tonnes was recycled and there was an 8% loss of material in the process. She said that Australia is actually doing “quite well” when it comes to meeting the targets. “Eighty-six per cent of packaging in the Australian supply chain in 2019-20 was designed to be reusable or recyclable if possible. “Of the 70% target, we’re at 16% [so] there’s still a bit of work to do here, but there’s a lot of investment happening in the industry at the moment to support plastic packaging recovery. “Of the 50% average recycled content target, we’re at 39%. When the targets were originally set in 2018 it was a 30% target which we achieved in 2020 and so we revised the target at that time. “For the phase out of problematic and unnecessary single-use plastic packaging, we’re in the development phase [...] There are a number of Australian states and territories with their own single-use plastic bands that are coming into effect.” Appleby said that looking deeper into the recycled content targets, there are material specific targets. For plastic, that’s 20%; for PET specifically, it’s 30%, and for HDPE it’s 20%.

In 2019-20, we had 6.3m tonnes of packaging material placed on the market. Of that, 14% was not recyclable by design, which left 5.4m tonnes of packaging that was

“For paper packaging we’re looking for an average of 60% recycled content, for metal, 35% and for glass, 50%”

Making sustainable packaging decisions

She explained that there a number of ways to make packaging more sustainable. “A great example, specifically for the wine industry, is that APCO has a number of organisations and businesses in the wine industry supply chain that are part of our membership base. “In mid-2018 APCO partnered with Endeavour Drinks Group to test out a value chain collaboration to address some of these challenges being faced by the wine industry and to explore opportunities to improve packaging sustainability as an industry. Appleby said the model was tested, eventually bringing together stakeholders including wineries that were exploring packaging sustainability. “The expanded discussion beyond this looked at both [the] primary supply chain and also considered value chain disciplines beyond the point of packaging disposal, into collection, sorting, reprocessing and recycling; as well as the supply chain across different materials used within the industry as a whole. “Together the group identified a number of opportunities for improvement and opportunities to test, and the results of the collaboration merged quite rapidly. “Having collaborated and created a set of industry-specific guidelines, they created their own specific guidelines which were complementary to APCO’s sustainable packaging guidelines […] and the group committed to collaborate on a range of challenges that they identified from their initial meeting.” The group, known since 2019 as the Wine Industry Sustainable Packaging Alliance (WISPA), has continued to meet since and has aligned with the Green Industry South Australia and South Australian Wine Industry Association (SAWIA). In her presentation, Appleby also discussed the Sustainable Packaging Guidelines, a central part of the co-regulatory framework. These are 10 principles to assist APCO members to achieve optimal outcomes to collectively work to meet the 2025 Targets. The guidelines also include a detailed ‘Implementation Guide’ to help members gain “maximum value” from them.

More information can be found online at www.apco.org.au or by email: apco@ apco.org.au APCO is a co-regulatory not-for-profit which is leading the development of a circular economy for packaging in Australia.