Arnott’s is on track to meet the Australian Packaging Covenant’s (APCO) 2025 National Packaging Targets by 2023, two years ahead of schedule.
The brand owner's sustainable packaging advancements have been recognised by APCO, with the company featuring as a finalist, and one of only a handful of local food manufacturers, in the running to win the Organisation’s Industry Sector Award at the annual APCO awards.
Arnott’s progress in the area of sustainable packaging is being driven by a raft of initiatives, including:
- The enhanced recyclability of its soft plastic packaging through the transition to mono-material wrappers;
- A reduction in cardboard usage through a carton grammage downgauge initiative;
- Final stage of trials to validate the use of rPET in bottles and trays; and
- Greater education and awareness around recyclability through the widespread adoption of the Australasian Recycling Label (ARL).
Most recently, Arnott’s has implemented a significant structural innovation to its portfolio of cardboard boxed products, resulting in a 500-tonne material reduction across 95 individual products each year, including Shapes, Cruskits and Vita-Weat.
The packaging change, which is a collaboration between Arnott’s and supplier Opal, will make boxes 10 per cent lighter, retaining their structural integrity, while using less cardboard.
“The new box structure, to be rolled out across some of our most popular savoury and sweet products, will be unnoticeable to consumers, but will reduce the amount of packaging used annually, and save on important resources like energy and water,” explained Alberto Peixeiro, R&D packaging director at Arnott’s.
“We’ve long committed to using cardboard packaging sourced from 100 per cent recycled fibre and ensuring that it is also 100 per cent recyclable. We are now able to turn our attention to our ‘reduce’ ambition, which is to use less material when we package our products.
“Innovative structural changes when applied at scale, can help to dramatically reduce the amount of material used by the industry, and is an important part of the greater sustainability equation we are working to solve.”
Earlier this year, Arnott’s committed to transition its soft plastic packaging from multi to mono-layer material by the end of 2023.
This project remains on track, with 85 per cent of Arnott’s soft plastic wrappers currently made using recyclable mono-material, with plans to transition the remaining 15 per cent in the coming 12 months.
Adoption of the ARL across the Arnott’s portfolio will hit 80 per cent by the end of 2022, and is expected to reach 100 per cent by the end of 2023, ahead of the original 2025 target.
“As consumers become more attuned to the need to recycle, we recognise the vital role that the ARL plays in eliminating confusion at the point of disposal,” Peixeiro concluded.
Arnott’s has also recently become a member of the New Zealand Soft Plastic Recycling Scheme, an organisation responsible for co-ordinating soft plastic recycling in NZ.
