APCO report reveals state of packaging in Australia

Glass is the first material group to reach the target for post-consumer recycled content in packaging.

Australia’s national packaging targets include a 50 per cent average recycled content in packaging by 2025. Newly released data by the Australian Packaging Covenant Organisation, reveals post-consumer recycled content rates in glass improved from 41 per cent in 2021-22 to 50 per cent in 2022-23.

APCO this week released its 2022-23 Australian Packaging Consumption and Recovery Data Report, its second report released this year with the intent to highlight where progress is being made and where more focus is needed.

Chris Foley, APCO Chief Executive Officer said the ability to drive meaningful change in the packaging industry depends on access to timely, accurate data.

“By releasing two reports in one year, we’re ensuring our members and stakeholders have the most current information to make informed decisions,” said Foley.

“In August, APCO launched its 2030 Strategic Plan, a new way forward to meet the need for industry to take greater responsibility for packaging placed on the market.

“The strategy was developed with input from hundreds of key stakeholders, so we know that businesses want these outcomes and are ready to act to strengthen their packaging’s social license.”

The report is designed to be a critical tool for industry and brand owners to understand where Australia sits on its journey to achieving a circular economy for packaging, what the challenges are and what action is needed to get there.

The latest results against the set targets include:

Target one: 100 per cent reusable, recyclable or compostable packaging.

Result: The proportion of recyclable packaging increased from 84 per cent to 86 per cent.

Target two: 70 per cent of plastic packaging being recycled or composted.

Result: The plastic recycling rate decreased from 20 per cent to 19 per cent.

Target three: 50 per cent of average post-consumer recycled content included in packaging.

Result: The average recycled content increased from 40 per cent to 44 per cent.

Target four: The phase-out of problematic and unnecessary single-use plastic packaging.

Result: This has been reduced by 40 per cent from the 2017-18 baseline.

Global packaging regulation and policy are evolving rapidly, driven by increasing concerns and demands for environmental sustainability. One of the most significant trends is the push by consumers for sustainable packaging.

The report highlighted that despite 94 per cent of paper and paperboard packaging on market (POM) receiving a “good recycling potential” rating, only 65 per cent of paper and paperboard was collected throughout 2022-23. This is a slight drop on the 2021-22 recovery rate of 68 per cent.

However, the recovery rate of rigid plastic has exceeded the growth of rigid plastic POM since 2018-19.

Post-consumer recycled content has also grown from 10 per cent to 14 per cent (as a proportion of POM), with an additional 32,000 tonnes of post-consumer recycled content used compared with 2021-22 levels.

Over the next five years, flexible plastic reprocessing capacity is projected to increase by 287,000 tonnes, bringing reprocessing capacity to 54 per cent of POM in 2027-28, compared to just 10 per cent in 2022-23.

Metal recovery improved slightly between 2021-22 (51 per cent) and 2022-23 (52 per cent), but still remains lower than the 56 per cent recovery rate in 2018-19.

Wood is typically used in business-to-business contexts for highly durable applications, making it well suited to reuse systems.

In 2021-22, 4.5 million tonnes of wood were avoided through the use of qualified reusable packaging systems.

The data in the report is intended to improve the sustainability of packaging by supporting strategic planning across the lifecycle of packaging – design, manufacturing, use, disposal, and end-of-life.

The report highlights in 2022-23, half of all glass placed on the market was from post-consumer recycled content. Making it the first material group to meet the 2025 material-specific target for post-consumer recycled content.

Also of note is the nearly doubling of domestic reprocessing capacity since 2018-19, from 1.85 metric tonne (MT) to 3.45MT.

On average an Australian consumer uses 146 kilograms of packaging per year, with 111 kilograms consumed in the home and 35 kilograms consumed away from home.

Comparatively, business to business consumption sits at 116 kilograms /person and other/unknown consumption at 2 kilograms /person which takes total consumption to 264 kilograms per capita.

Paper and Paperboard represents over 50 per cent of all packaging placed on market and has a high recovery rate of 65 per cent. Even so, the report says more remains to be done, as there are still 1.3 million tonnes of this material going to landfill.

Other highlights included the rise of Container Deposit Scheme recovery via depots and reverse vending machines, which almost doubled between 2018-19 and 2022-23 across the country.

As well as the disappearance of some problematic and single-use plastics from Australian packaging.

The report says 31,000 tonnes of single-use HDPE shopping bags being almost entirely eliminated, Polyvinyl chloride halving from 20,000 tonnes to 10,000 tonnes, and 1,500 tonnes of oxo-degradable plastics being reduced to almost zero.

For more information, https://apco.org.au/