Big supermarkets sign pact to end plastic packaging waste

18/05/21

AFR

Woolworths, Coles, Aldi and big food manufacturers have committed to making all plastic packaging reusable, recyclable or compostable by 2025.

Their commitment is part of an industry-wide ANZPAC Plastics Pact to eliminate plastic packaging waste, most of which is sent to landfill or ends up in waterways.

Nearly 60 organisations in Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific have signed the pact, including the big supermarket chains, Amcor, Coca-Cola, Nestlé, Unilever, Arnott’s, Asahi, Colgate-Palmolive, Mondelez, Pepsico, Unilever, Veolia, Planet Ark, KeepCup, the Australian Beverages Council and TerraCycle Australia.

Led by The Australian Packaging Covenant Organisation (APCO), the pact commits members to four actionable targets by 2025: eliminating unnecessary and problematic plastic packaging through redesign, innovation and alternative delivery models; ensuring 100 per cent of plastic packaging is recyclable, reusable or compostable; increasing the current volume of plastic packaging collected and recycled by at least 25 per cent; and ensuring new plastic packaging has on average 25 per cent recycled content.

ANZPAC joins the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s global plastics pact, a network of more than 550 organisations committed to reducing plastic waste and pollution.

“To tackle plastic waste effectively, we need to find solutions that aren’t constrained by national borders or old ways of thinking,” said APCO chief executive Brooke Donnelly.

“Through the plastics pact model, we will bring together the complete plastic supply chain across the entire Oceania region, and working with our global partners through the plastics pact network, develop solutions that deliver real and tangible change to the plastic problem for our region.”

Minderoo report

The ANZPAC Plastics Pact was launched on Tuesday, coinciding with the release of a report by Andrew and Nicola Forrest’s Minderoo Foundation, which claimed that 100 companies were behind as much as 90 per cent of global production of single-use plastics.

The report named some global banks and asset managers funding or profiting from single-use plastics, including Barclays, HSBC, Bank of America, Vanguard and BlackRock.

The launch of the ANZPAC Plastics Pact followed the release in March of the federal government’s national plastics plan, which called for expediting the phasing out of unnecessary single-use plastics packaging.

Coles, Woolworths and other big retailers scrapped single-use plastic shopping bags in 2018 and have stopped selling plastic drinking straws, but supermarkets have continued to come under fire from consumers for unnecessary plastic packaging, while food and grocery manufacturers are facing growing pressure to phase out virgin plastics and plastic packaging that cannot be recycled.

Coles chief commercial executive Greg Davis said the ANZPAC partnership would help fulfil the chain’s recently launched Together to Zero sustainability strategy, committing to deliver net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 and long-term aspiration towards zero waste and zero hunger.

Adrian Cullen, head of sustainability at Woolworths, said the retailer had removed thousands of tonnes of plastic from packaging and stores in recent years. “But we know there’s more to do, and we can’t do it alone,” he said.

“The Plastics Pact is a first of its kind opportunity for the entire industry and every level of the supply chain to rally around this challenge and collaborate on solutions that reduce plastic waste for the benefit of the environment and generations to come,” Mr Cullen said.