Out of 696 signatories due to report this year (including 603 brand owners who are required to report online, and 93 non-brand owners who are given the choice of submitting an online or written report), we have achieved a compliance rate of 82.1% - a remarkable achievement compared to last year’s rate of 49.2% of reports submitted prior to the due date.  Well done!

The compliance process has now begun, and signatories who have not yet submitted their reports have until 30 April 2014 to submit reports before the possibility of becoming non-compliant. Signatories who have not submitted their annual reports by the due date will not be eligible for a high achiever’s award this year.

Action Plans

Signatories with expired action plans are reminded to submit an updated action plan as soon as possible, so that you can begin implementing the actions in time to collect data for next year’s annual reports.  A range of action plan development resources are available on our website.

Having a current action plan in place is one of your obligations as a signatory, so if yours has expired, this must be done in order to remain compliant with the APC.

Annual Reporting Verification Audit

As part of annual reporting, the APC undertakes an assessment and audit process and it is important that your organisation is ‘audit ready’.  For more information on how to be 'audit ready' please see our Audit Ready Guide for 2014.  Signatories will be notified in July if they have been selected for audit.

This year we will host formal awards ceremonies in July (Melbourne – 15 July, Sydney – 23 July) to reward those who score highest in their industry sector. Award winners will be promoted via industry media channels, and each winning organisation will be provided with a media pack to assist with the promotion via their own channels.

Award winners will also have the opportunity to contribute further information about their reported activities, which will be developed into case studies to be released in line with the July awards ceremonies.

On the 3 April, the APC was the principal sponsor of Planet Ark’s 21st Birthday celebrations at Centennial Parklands. At the celebration, the APC launched the new Packaging Recyclability Evaluation Portal (or PREP). The PREP is an online tool developed for APC signatories with broad industry consultation by Planet Ark and GreenChip, to help members of the packaging supply chain make decisions about whether or not their packaging can be classified as recyclable in Australia.

The PREP could not have been developed without the input of a wide range of people and organisations up and down the supply chain. Thanks you to all those who provided information and feedback.

Until now, there has been no way to access clear, consistent and validated information about the recyclability of specific packaging formats. The PREP aims to address this by combining two forms of evaluation:

1. Technical recyclability.  Which has been ascertained through extensive consultation with MRF operators and reprocessors; and
2. The proportion of the population with access to a kerbside recycling service for the item, established using the local services information compiled on RecyclingNearYou.com.au in partnership with local councils nationwide.  In the near future we will be looking to integrate other collection systems such as retail drop off.

The PREP in its current form does not link to a specific recyclability label, however the APC continues to recommend the use of the mobius loop.  The Australian Food and Grocery Council is currently exploring the development of new recyclability label; details and timing are yet to be confirmed.

The PREP will be available for use by all APC signatories in early May.  Visit the PREP website.

The APC is partnering with Mobile Muster this year to help our signatories recycle old phones and accessories.  Mobile Muster is the official product stewardship body of the mobile phone industry, so as part of our commitment to product stewardship, we’re challenging our signatories to collect and recycle as many old phones as they can by June 5, World Environment Day. Since it’s a competition, there will be prizes on offer – the categories are “most phones collected” and “most phones collected per employee”.

Some of our signatories are already collection points for Mobile Muster, but those who aren’t can sign up on their website. Then, let us know you’re involved by email to actionplans@packagingcovenant.org.au. Once you’ve collected your phones and arranged a free pick up from Mobile Muster (before June 12, please!), we’ll determine the winners. Prizes will be awarded at our Annual Awards nights in Melbourne and Sydney on July 15 and 23.

The APC has worked with consultants and industry over the last six months to develop a resource on the inclusion of recycled content in food packaging items. This resource, Recycled Materials in Food Contact Applications, details the challenges, opportunities, and legislation relevant to including recycled content in food packaging.

Of particular interest to many signatories will be the discussion of legislative requirements, and the legal standing of several food Standards which are often considered binding. We recommend that food and beverage brand owners review this resource if they are considering making changes to their packaging, or even if they aren’t.

We will be providing additional resources on incorporating recycled material into your purchasing during April. You can keep checking our resources page, and we’ll be promoting these in the next e-news.

The NSW EPA has recently released a tool to enable SMEs to assess and reduce their waste to landfill by identifying material streams which could be diverted to recycling. The BinTrim model has successfully been used at a range of sites, with case studies on various business types and material streams available on the EPA website.

The BinTrim tool can be used by anyone to estimate how much waste they produce and how much of that waste is likely to be recyclable. It can also be used to conduct a brief onsite waste review and develop a site-specific action plan to address the primary materials of concern.

The Australian Food and Grocery Council is now offering energy assessments to food and beverage SMEs across Australia through the Empower program.  The program offers information and advice on energy efficiency opportunities to SMEs in the food and grocery manufacturing sector.

The Empower program includes a range of tools, including quick calculators and opportunity finders, while you can also sign up for a free energy assessment. There’s also an opportunity to host a site workshop, where the Empower team will come to you and conduct a workshop with you and other SMEs, identifying practical opportunities to reduce energy use and save money. If you’re interested, please contact Georgia Carthey.

IND 206/13 - Educology and CQLGA Project Assets Capture

Educology acts as a home to a growing community of sustainability education and communications professionals. Educology is Australia’s premier social knowledge source for anyone working to make a positive difference to our environment. The website, an APC funded project, currently holds project case studies and how to guides relating to two other APC projects: NSW 110/11 Equipment for recovery of expanded polystyrene and QLD 163/12 Toward zero- reducing waste at work program.

The APC are excited to be working with Mesch Engagement to establish Educology which works on the premise that together we can make a difference. Educology collates, creates and shares online resources and tools and will run a program of webinars and forums, partner with professionals and organisations from all fields of government, industry and the private sector, and keep ahead of communications best practice in sustainability.

Please visit http://www.educology.com.au/welcome for more information about how you can access stories, tools and insights to help you and your organisation improve and strengthen your sustainability communications and projects.

Recently completed projects

Keep Australia Beautiful Council WA recently completed Clean Clubs: A Clean Game’s a Good Game Project. Between October 2011 and June 2013 the clean clubs project registered 42 sports clubs to the program which exposed approximately 20,000 people to the message by providing 1,300 collapsible rubbish and recycling bins and 1,000 posters/stickers promoting correct litter disposal and collected an estimated 5,000 bags of rubbish and 3,000 bags of recycling.

To ensure that the APC Recycling Data remains up to date, we will be commissioning a report reviewing the current methodology and laying the foundation for an updated methodology post July 2015. The objective of this review will be to ensure there is an appropriate measure to capture recovery of used packaging materials within Australia for the next 10 years.  We will be releasing a Request for Tender document via the website after the Easter break. If you are a consultant with extensive experience in statistics, the waste industry, and would like to be emailed a copy of the RFT when it is released, please contact Jessica Sheehan.

2014 Australasian Packaging and Industrial Paper Market Outlook Forum

Evidence shows Australia’s fibre packaging and industrial paper markets are in turbulent times with complexity in the markets likely to continue through 2014 and 2015. This conference, held 19 – 20 June 2014 in Melbourne, examines issues and trends in the industry and this year will include discussions on food contact packaging safety and how to unlock total value from recovered fibre. Stan Moore, CEO of the APC, will be presenting on market opportunities for fibre recyclate.

Register now

IAPRI World Conference on Packaging June 2014

Register now for the 19th International Association of Packaging Research Institutes (IAPRI) world conference on packaging. The closing date for the Early Bird rate has been extended to 18th April 2014.

A list of provisional conference papers can be found on the conference website.

2014 AIP National Conference

The 2014 AIP National Conference: Packaging & Innovation Excellence is being held on the 17 and 18 June at the Sofitel Wentworth in Sydney.

For further information on attending or exhibiting at the 2014 AIP National Conference please  visit www.aipack.com.au