At its May meeting the APC Council agreed to continue the focus on developing the capacity of signatories to meet and go beyond their APC packaging sustainability commitments.  Since 2011 the APC has invested more than half a million dollars into capacity development and will continue to develop resources and run workshops focussed on continuous improvement and ‘going beyond the requirements of the APC’. 

Some of the things we have planned for FY14 include: in-house waste management resources, recovery facility tours and more design for recovery workshops, life cycle/packaging assessment support and increased support for action plans.

We will be promoting our capacity development programme in the coming months.  If you would like to find out more, contact Brett Giddings at members@packagingcovenant.org.au.

Read the full APC Council Communique

The first of the Design Smart Material Guides is now available in the resources section of the APC website.  A comprehensive resource for those involved in the design, specification and procurement of packaging, the guides provide a ‘checklist’ of sustainability considerations to keep in mind when designing and/or specifying packaging based on particular materials.

Intended to support your packaging assessments against the SPG, the guides are based on ‘life cycle thinking’ and cover fibre packaging, rigid plastic packaging, flexible plastic packaging, aluminium containers, steel containers, glass containers, composite packaging formats, degradable plastics packaging and packaging components/closures/labels. 

The introductory guide provides an overview of how to apply the guides in the assessment of packaging. The remaining nine guides will be available on the resources page over the coming months.

We are committed to helping signatories develop and implement action plans that are aligned to their business and go beyond the requirements of the APC.  The APC is holding Action Plan Development Workshops for new signatories (those without approved action plans) in late June.

Sydney: 24 June 2013
Melbourne: 25 June 2013

Attendees to these workshops 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. 

Further resources are planned for those wishing to revise their existing plans, however you are welcome to enrol.

To enrol for these workshops please contact Natalie Ryan by Friday 14 June.

It’s been a busy month with APC projects.  The recent funding round attracted 51 proposals, seeking $20,455,361 (ex GST) in APC funding.

Proposals were dominated by submissions relatively equally from Queensland (22%), NSW (21%), Victoria (21%), and National (20%) projects, with remaining projects proposed in WA, SA, TAS and NT.  Projects addressing away from home recycling largely dominated the submissions (35%), followed by projects focused on plastics (14%), home recycling (13%), and glass (12%).

The assessment and approvals process is underway, and we’re looking forward to an exciting project portfolio for 2013-2014.

One of the APC’s funded projects, Eco Buy’s Strengthening Markets for Mixed Plastics Recycled Content Products recently completed Phase 1 of research (read more below).

ECO-Buy through funding provided by the Australian Packaging Covenant, in partnership with Sustainability Victoria and Zero Waste SA is working with Local Government, State Government and the private sector to identify opportunities for, and barriers to, increasing demand for mixed recycled plastic products. These products typically include bollards, decking, stakes, signs, and traffic control items.

Phase One (market analysis) of this project  is now complete and one of the key findings was that buyers did not feel they were well informed when it comes to recycled plastic products.

Phase Two includes development of a toolkit of information to help increase the uptake of products made with mixed plastic recycled content.

Read more about the project and toolkit development

Thanks to all those organisations that completed our recent on-site waste management survey.  We had more than 280 respondents and are currently in the process of working through the responses and identifying opportunities with Anne Prince Consulting.

The results of the survey and a review of the existing recovery programmes available to signatories will underpin the development of a range of resources for signatories in FY14.  We look forward to working with you to improve your on-site recovery.

All signatories that participated in Business Clean-Up Day in 2013 have been provided with a site-based online energy and resource assessment as a reward for taking part in this important product stewardship program.

The focus of the assessment is on site and office energy use, however a range of resource use and waste management questions and actions have been included to help organisations address some of their APC requirements. Also included was a longer-term Greenhouse Gas Tracking program which allows tracking of Scope 1, 2 and 3 Greenhouse Gas (GHG) footprints over time. Figures can be updated quarterly to monitor your GHG and consumption trends which will also assist in identifying areas that could be improved.

The APC Site-Based Energy and Resource Assessment and Action Plan was provided in collaboration with Greenbizcheck (greenbizcheck.com). Baiada and Sanitarium were the recipients of awards for the most participants and greatest number of bags collected (provided by Replas).

Join Business Clean-Up Day next year and you too might find the benefits reach far beyond the rewards above – those identified by this year’s participants included a boost to staff morale, a cleaner local environment, and stronger ties with other local businesses and the community.