Planet Ark has launched the Australian Recycling Label to promote better recycling at source in Australia, along with a tool to help packaging designers work out recyclable materials.
At many an industry conference platform, speakers emphasise that public education is the key to better recycling and, therefore, more commercially-viable ways of recovering used products.
Until recently, much of this education has fallen to local councils or some of the larger environmental solutions companies, who run community and schools education programs.
With very little fanfare, however, a new initiative to promote better recycling at source has been launched in Australia.
Planet Ark has designed the Australian Recycling Label, which it launched with the New South Wales Environment Minister, Mark Speakman, to coincide with National Recycling Week in November.
“Planet Ark research found that 99 per cent of people surveyed are confused about the recyclability of at least one common item of packaging,” Mr Speakman said.
“This new label will clearly spell out which bin the various components of a packaging item should be put in, whether that be the recycling or the general waste.’
Two-pronged scheme
The Australian Recycling Label is the consumer-facing part of a two-pronged scheme, which is powered by the Packaging Recyclability Evaluation Portal (PREP), also developed by Planet Ark.
The PREP is a world-first assessment tool that helps packaging designers for consumer products determine whether or not their containers or wrapping can be ‘recyclable’ in Australian kerbside bins.
Developed with financial support from the Australian Packaging Covenant, the PREP is the result of three years of extensive consultation with fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) brand owners, local councils, resource recovery businesses and stakeholders throughout the broader Australian packaging supply chain.
At the heart of the PREP innovation is software that provides a packaging recyclability assessment, which takes into account the design considerations of a packaging item, like size, shape and materials. It lets designers test different packaging configurations to increase the likelihood that they will be recycled at the kerbside.
The outcome is a recycling label to guide consumers about how to dispose of the packaging.
Two of Australia’s largest companies, Blackmores and Officeworks, have adopted the new label for their products. Nine major FMCG companies are now using the PREP to assess the recyclability of 400 packaging products.
The PREP was also a finalist for the Innovator of the Year category in the national 2015 Banksia Foundation Sustainability Awards.
More information about these Planet Ark-led initiatives is available online at www.arl.org.au and www.prep.org.au.