A reminder to please let us know if your APC contact officer’s details have changed: we generally keep two contacts on file.

We will also be issuing new registration certificates for APC Signatories in January along with invoices. If the name of your GM or CEO has changed please email Sandra Broadfoot.

Signatories with action plans that are expired or due to expire up to the end of March 2014, have been contacted so that they can update their plans. The due date for plans that have already expired is 17 October 2013, and plans due to expire before the end of the year are due on 15 November.  Plans expiring in the first 3 months of 2014 are due by March 2014.

Signatories are reminded that having a current plan is part of their commitment and compliance with the Covenant.

The APC Member Services Team is committed to helping signatories develop and implement action plans that are aligned to their business, include clear targets and measurable actions and lead to improved environmental outcomes.  The APC will be holding Action Plan Development Workshops on the 15th October in Sydney (UNSW City Campus) and 22nd October in Melbourne (RMIT City Campus).

Attending a workshop is the most efficient and effective way to get an understanding of how to develop or revise your action plan. Attendees will receive guidance and support from experts regarding how to develop action plans to ensure they are easier to implement and report against, and deliver measurable results. These workshops are free for signatories.

If you have an APC team, you might like to attend as a group – doing so will help you improve engagement across your company. Signatories looking to refresh their knowledge of the APC are also welcome.

You can register for the workshops on our website.

Case Study Corner: bringing you examples of ways to addresses the KPIs of the APC.

Platypus Homewares is an importing and distributing business with warehouses located in western Sydney. They do not manufacture any of their products but import and rebrand products with their brand name. Since they do not manufacture any of their product packaging, they have limited control over its design, and are in discussions with their supply chain to incorporate disposal and recycling logos on packaging.

In the meantime, their APC team wants to identify ways they can contribute to improving the litter stream. They decide to start by managing litter on their site and in the surrounding areas. As an initial action, they identify litter hotspots on the site, and find that a popular lunch spot, a smoking area, and an area outside an open warehouse door are primary areas for rubbish accumulation.

To address litter, the Platypus Homewares APC team commit to weekly clean-ups of these hotspots. They record the dates of the clean-ups, who attends, and how much litter is collected. They also realise that by moving internal bins away from the open door, they could prevent waste from the bin becoming litter. They find a new location for the bins and notice a reduction in the amount of litter collected.

Now is a good time to check in and see where you’re at with your APC actions and goals. The APC Signatory Health Check, an easy self-assessment tool to gauge your overall progress, was sent by email to all signatories on the 23rd of September. It is a short ‘health assessment’ tool in Excel format that should help you consider where your action plan implementation is at, and identify any areas of difficulty. The assessment includes suggestions for actions you could undertake to improve your performance as a signatory.

Some Excel versions are not compatible with the tool, so we have created a PDF version for those who cannot use the original version. Both are available on the APC website.

Employees at Sanitarium Health & Wellbeing joined forces with Take 3 and Mars Food to remove an estimated 2800kg of rubbish in the Great Northern Clean Up. During their efforts between 16 – 20 September, 68 volunteers from Sanitarium, Take3 and Mars collected more than 60 bags of rubbish and 50 bags of recyclable materials across six kilometres of roadway in Berkeley Vale, NSW.

The employees prevented more than 2.8 tonnes of unsightly and potentially harmful litter ending up in our waterways or in the digestive system of our native wildlife. It demonstrates what can be accomplished when working as a team with other local businesses.

As part of our role in assisting signatories with their APC requirements, the APC is currently undertaking a project with ECO-Buy to identify organisations whose products and / or packaging contains recycled materials.

ECO-Buy are undertaking a survey of brand owners and product/packaging manufacturers in order to develop a list of organisations and their products which contain recycled materials. This list will be made publically available on an updated version of the ECO-Find website for APC signatories, other organisations, and individuals to use to inform their buying preferences.

If your organisation and products either contain or are packaged primarily in recycled materials please contact Stephen Reardon at ECO-Buy to express interest.

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 hear some of the opportunities and challenges that consultants have identified in working with signatories. In early December we will be holding two 2 hour forums in Sydney and Melbourne 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 Georgia Carthey.

Five Central Queensland Local Government Authorities – Banana Shire, Central Highlands Regional, Gladstone Regional, Isaac Regional and Rockhampton Regional – implemented a public place recycling (PPR) introductory scheme to ensure improved recycling at events in public places across Central Queensland.

Over the course of the project 200 recycling bins were distributed to participating venues, delivering PPR education and infrastructure to 41,000 people.  The participating events diverted on average 30% of waste from landfill.

Read more about the project in the APC Projects Database

The highly interactive two-day World Class Packaging Forum aims to address the top pressing issues in relation to packaging functionality improvement.

Key topics at the conference include:

• Benchmarking world-class packaging system from Nestle
• Learning from Mondelez on mapping consumer behaviour to develop value-added packaging concepts
• HJ Heinz ‘s innovation strategies on ensuring food safety and avoid contamination
• Discovering the secret of Coca-Cola Amatil in enhancing packaging life-cycle and controlling costs from production to shelf
• Exploring how NSW Health implement their packaging accessibility project

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