The changing face of Isuzu’s recyclable packaging push is already well advanced and the company is determined to maintain the pace.
Isuzu Australia Limited (IAL), like many companies dealing with large amounts of freight packaging, has taken the pledge to meet The Australian Packaging Covenant’s (APCO) 2025 targets and is making solid strides towards this goal.
Acting on several fronts, Isuzu has already reached the overall APCO performance rating of, ‘Advanced,’ putting it well on track for its 2025 obligations.
APCO’s 2025 targets include 100 per cent reusable, recyclable or compostable packaging; 70 per cent of plastic packaging being recycled or composted; 50 per cent of average recycled content included in packaging; and the phase-out of problematic and unnecessary single-use plastics packaging.
An Isuzu spokesperson said IAL has been making steady, continuous improvements to ensure it hit the targets comfortably, without disruption to critical day-to-day operations.
Change starts at home
To get a sense of the scale of IAL’s packaging footprint, one needn’t look further than the company’s vast parts facility in Truganina, Victoria.
At 15,000 square metres, it holds in the vicinity of 35,000 lines of stock across 33,000 locations within the space.
The team picks an average of 2500 lines of inventory every day, which equates to more than two and half million lines every year. From that, more than 70,000 freight consignments are shipped-out every year. Recent calculations indicate that the Isuzu parts operation picks, packs and ships about 7,300,000 kilograms of parts every year, with this figure growing annually.
Needless to say, that’s an enormous amount of packaging coming in from the parent company in Japan and going out across the Oceania region including Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands.
Gradual Change
An Isuzu spokesperson says it’s been critical that the adoption of APCO compliance be pioneered from the ground up.
Isuzu’s parts department has reused or recycled about 90 per cent of all packaging that comes in from overseas, which is an enormous quantity of material being kept out of landfill and in circulation.
Out-bound bubble wrap is now made with up of 30 per cent recycled material while itself remaining fully recyclable.
With biodegradable packaging tape and recyclable shrink wrap to be introduced this year, the supply chain department is challenging itself to go as green as possible. Additional initiatives include packaging type reductions, and an expanded use of recyclable packaging that features the universal 100 per cent Recycling mobius logo.
Anything that can be recycled is separated and reused to send componentry out to Isuzu dealerships and other items are disposed of as per APCO protocol.
The packaging that leaves the warehouse is, for the most part, made from recycled material that can all be reused and recycled.
All of this is monitored by an in-house APCO committee with all Isuzu departments represented. This way, the entirety of Isuzu is moving towards a greener future together.
APCO’s 2025 deadline is a milestone, not a finish line and Isuzu has no intention of allowing standards to slip.
Isuzu’s vast dealer network has enthusiastically embraced the program too, with many investigating additional ways to reduce and reuse throughout their own localised supply chains.
For more information, visit: www.isuzu.com.au
