The APC is proud to be a supporting sponsor of Planet Ark's National Recycling Week from 11-17 November 2013.

The APC is encouraging all signatories to use National Recycling Week as an opportunity to elevate the importance of recycling within their business.

Find out more on the APC website

The new APC Lifecycle document is a brief guide outlining what to expect as a signatory to the APC. Created to explain the stages of being a signatory for new signatories and contact officers, it can also be a good refresher for established signatories too, especially if welcoming new team members.

Visit our website to read the APC Lifecycle document.

Also, don’t forget to inform the APC  if any of your contact officers have changed.

The APC is committed to being a resource to signatories, providing a platform for discussion, and keeping pace with recent developments in packaging and design. We have recently been working on improving our LinkedIn page, and providing ongoing content and commentary on progress in packaging.

To keep track of the latest developments and APC events as they occur, you can follow us on LinkedIn . We’ll present ongoing commentary on changing packaging design and sustainability, and a point of contact with other signatories. Eventually, we hope to develop working groups through LinkedIn for our signatories.

As part of our role in supporting signatories in developing and implementing action plans, the APC Member Services Team held Action Plan Development Workshops in Sydney, Melbourne, and Adelaide in October. The primary focus was on developing plans for new signatories (those without approved action plans), with additional material presented on revising expired plans. The workshops were well attended in all states.

Attendees were given guidance and support from experts on how to develop action plans to ensure they are easier to implement, straightforward to report against, and deliver measurable results. Emphasis was placed on ensuring that plans were aligned to their business, included clear actions and measurable targets, and would lead to improved environmental outcomes.

Additional workshops to support signatories will be run following the annual reporting period in 2014. In addition, the APC will be coming to WA in January to meet with signatories and provide support. Please contact Georgia Carthey  if you’re interested in meeting with the APC at this time.

The Member Services Team would like to speak with anyone who has been to previous workshops in order to create case studies on the development and implementation of action plans, following the attendance at a workshop. We would like to discuss your experiences following on from the workshop, and identify any benefits you may have received from attending.

If you are interested in discussing your experiences after attending a workshop, please contact Natalie Ryan  to organise a time to talk.

Tortuga, a cheese manufacturing company, has an existing APC action plan and an internal team for implementing it. However, their APC team leader Tony has been keeping track of their progress against their targets, and has noticed that their target under KPI 6 doesn’t match up with what the company is trying to achieve.

Tortuga originally committed to having regular meetings with their major suppliers to identify ways to improve their packaging. However, in their first meeting, Tortuga and several of their major suppliers identified a way they could work together to light-weight their cheese packaging and recover more of it, and their focus is now on this project, rather than ongoing meetings.

To make sure they will be able to better report against their new actions, Tony and his APC Team review their action plan and identify a more aligned action and target under KPI 6. With internal management support, they then revise the action plan to include the new action, and submit the revised plan to the APC with a coversheet detailing the changes in the document. The APC approve the new action plan and return it to Tortuga for implementation.

The 2013 grant round proved popular received 51 applications, seeking a total of $20,455,361 in APC funding and representing a total proposed project value of $74,172,473 (ex GST).

The funding sought by individual projects ranged from $7,600 to $3,325,000.

Read about the successful 2013 funding round projects

APC signatory Dunlop Flooring, part of Pacific Brands, was the deserving winner of a 2013 Banksia Sustainability Award for their Recycle by Dunlop Program in the category of Waste Minimisation.

Dunlop not only reduces waste of polyurethane foam, they also clean, sort and ultimately recycle it into a new reusable carpet underlay. This sustainable building material is used in the places we live and work and provides “Comfort that Lasts”.  Part of Dunlop Flooring’s product stewardship approach to managing waste involves using the packaging that new underlay is delivered in to recover used underlay for recycling.

The APC would like to congratulate Dunlop Flooring for their innovative approach to waste management.

The APC would like to strengthen its relationship with the diverse range of consultants working with signatories. We will be holding forums to meet the consultants we often hear from, provide some APC updates and listen to some of the opportunities and challenges that consultants have identified in working with signatories. The forums will be held on the 4th December in Melbourne and the 5th in Sydney to engage with consultants and gain valuable feedback from those working with signatories.

If you are a consultant interested in these forums or you know of consultants who have worked with the APC in the past, or who have helped you fulfil your commitments as a signatory, please contact Brett Giddings.

For updated brochure and registration, kindly contact Ms Cherrie at CherrieK@marcusevanskl.com.

Representatives from the APC and NPCIA will be presenting at the Society of Plastics Engineers, Plastics and Waste Conference in Sydney on the 14th of November. The annual Conference will also cover the new NSW program of “Waste Less, Recycle More” and feature presentations about strategy, policy and technology developments in Europe and locally. Other presentations will support these themes with data, potential solutions and technical advancements in resource recovery.

Find out more and enrol.