The Australian Packaging Covenant Organisation (APCO) has committed to the development of resources to support state and local government procurement of recycled content products and packaging.
Supporting government procurement is one of 23 projects outlined in APCO’s recently released schedule of priority projects for the 2020/21 financial year.
Developed to drive targeted progress towards the 2025 National Packaging Targets, the 23 projects cover priority areas including re-use, recycling, composting, recycled content uptake and the phase out of problematic, single-use plastics.
The program was developed in consultation with, and will be overseen by, APCO’s 2020 Working Groups – a community of 160 participants representing the entire packaging supply chain.
The working groups, comprising National Packaging Targets Implementation, Design, Systems and Education and Material Circularity, will each be responsible for the delivery of several projects structured across the next financial year.
According to APCO CEO Brooke Donnelly, all priority projects connect with the strategies outlined in Our Packaging Future, APCO’s framework for how Australia will deliver the 2025 Targets.
“This comprehensive program of projects has been designed to support Australia’s collective effort as we transition to a circular economy for packaging,” she said.
“Over the next year, the APCO working groups will work collaboratively to address these issues and develop a range of strategies, materials and resources to ensure Australia’s supply chain is fully equipped to deliver the 2025 National Packaging Targets.”
Projects include building an evidence based business case and strategy for packaging reuse models, which will map and quantify current flows of reusable packaging, research alternative models and identify priority opportunities.
APCO will also facilitate collaborative pilot projects to implement reuse in targeted supply chains, promote reduction, reuse and recycling of B2B packaging and assess the applicability of the Australasian Recycling Label in the B2B stream.
Additionally, APCO’s design working group will develop four new design guidelines to support sustainable packaging guide implementation. This includes guidelines for soft plastics, ridged plastics, fiber based packaging and problematic small items.
The project schedule was officially launched during APCO’s weekly community webinar on 24 June.
The webinar explored insights into how different organisations will contribute to and participate in priority project work. The webinar can be watched again here.
Pictured: Assistant Waste Reduction and Environmental Management Minister Trevor Evans and APCO CEO Brooke Donnelly at the 2019 APCO Awards.
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