In the second keynote session of the Australian Institute of Packaging’s (AIP) 2025 and beyond conference, chaired by AIP president Jason Fields, attendees heard from three large brand owners about the progress they are making towards meeting the sustainability targets.
Bill Heague, GM Mars Food, kicked things off by clarifying he was from Mars the company, not the planet, and said, “it’s great to be in a room of likeminded people who want to solve problems.”
Heague said that the familly-owned multinational Mars has so far invested $1 billion to sustainability, and plans to devote a further $2 billion over the next three years. Mars, he said, has already reduced its carbon footprint by six per cent, and has signed a 20-year power purchase agreement, with plans to one day totally source its power from sustainable means.
With regards to Mars’ progress on sustainable packaging goals, he said that the company still has a way to go, with currently only 20 per cent of packaging is reusable, recyclable or compostable, although 43 per cent is designed with circularity in mind.
The company has a goal of moving that first figure up to 100 per cent, while also reducing the use of virgin plastic by 25 per cent and to incorporate 30 per cent recycled content into its plastic packaging.
Heague stated the importance of balancing the need for more efficient use of plastics in packaging with reducing food waste. Although Mars is rolling out such innovations such as paper packaging for chocolate bars, he still believes that plastic is the best material for preserving foods. With this in mind, the key, he said, is to create a fully circular economy.
His closing statement to the audience was that this is a collective problem we have to solve and asked all those in attendance to start now with a long term view. “It’s happening and so the sooner you start to make a plan, the better.” Later on, PKN spoke to Heague on our podcast, where he gave the example of how one of the products Mars designed was nine years in the making, highlighting just why companies need to start planning early.
Brian McKay, head of packaging at Woolworths, echoed Heague's sentiments, and opened his presentation by conjuring a powerful image: “If we continue what we are doing there will be more plastic in the ocean than fish by 2025.” He said the planet needs sustainable packaging and customers are demanding it.
Customer surveys conducted by Woolworths have shown that customers have put 'less packaging' and 'more sustainable packaging' among their top demands. He said pressure is also coming from the government, and noted that Government is getting ready to step in if significant progress is not shown.
“Customers demand it, governments expect it, the planet needs it,” he stated.
McKay’s advice for other companies was to not design something into a packaging product unless you absolutely have to. He said there are simple things that can be done to reduce the use of unnecessary materials, citing the example of how one home care brand owner took laundry spoons out of their laundry detergent and saved 8000 tonnes of plastic.
In a follow up interview on PKN's podcast, McKay emphasised that all of this work towards using recyclable materials means nothing if there is no uptake, stating "we must close the loop". He also mentioned that Woolworths was proud to win the Gold Banksia Award for its sustainability efforts as a group. Later that evening, McKay went on to pick up two PIDA awards for Woolworths, gold for the the Sustainability Award for Mono Material Advancements and bronze for Sustainable Fresh Produce Packaging.
Also joining this powerful session was Karunia Adhiputra, head of packaging Nestle Oceania, who shared the company’s journey so far towards its very ambitious targets.
Nestle has launched some packaging with innovative designs, Adhiputra said, citing the example of Nespresso pods which use 80 per cent recycled aluminium, and the recent paperisation of Smarties packaging. In addition, Nestle has recently trialled paper packaging for KitKat wrappers, as well as for 30% recycled content flexible wrappers produced via advanced chemical recycling. By trialling these kinds of innovations, Nestle hopes to gain insights into consumer acceptance, useability and producibility, among other aspects. During the PKN podcast interview afterwards, Adhiputra said that one of the biggest challenges with recycled material is the limitation of the barrier properties of the material to ensure freshness of the product.
He said that it is important to also look beyond 2025 and consider the long term solutions for a fully circular economy. The focus right now, he said, should be on incorporating more recycled packaging materials back into new packaging, and to find opportunities to reduce material and make the entire supply chain more efficient.
