Pact Group has appeared before the House Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Resources during a public hearing on 7 August in the Parliament of Victoria, with Pact chairman Raphael Geminder speaking out on the challenges packaging recyclers are facing and making a strong call for government to speed up the pace of legislative change.
Geminder, who founded Pact Group 22 years ago, and who has been involved in the packaging and recycling industries for more than 30 years, gave a rousing speech to drive home his view that the pace of change is too slow when it comes to government intervention via mandatory regulation on minimum recycled content, which could help build Australia's circular economy.
He noted that in his time in the industry, the last five years have been among the most challenging. He cited the global pandemic, wars, severe weather events, shipping and supply chain disruptions, inflationary pressures and difficult economic conditions as key among the challenges that have impacted businesses in Australia.
Despite this disruption, he said, Pact Group has managed to continue to invest in infrastructure and equipment, to build a circular economy for plastic packaging in Australia.
"With the support of a significant grant from the Federal Government, Pact is investing more than $75 million in new equipment and facility upgrades, to increase the amount of recycled content that we can include in our packaging products," Geminder said.
In the last three years, Pact and its partners Cleanaway, Coca-Cola Europacific Partners and Asahi, have received support from the government’s Recycling Modernisation Fund to build three of Australia’s largest plastic recycling facilities. Collectively, these three facilities represent a total investment of more than $250 million with the capacity to recycle over 70,000 tonnes of post-consumer plastic – equivalent to 10 million bottles a day.
"While we all work towards building a strong domestic circular economy, there is only so much that can be done without government regulatory intervention," he stressed.
"We are pleased that Minister Plibersek has announced the government will introduce National Packaging Laws that will mandate minimum recycled content requirements for all packaging.
"This is critical if we want to create an effective circular economy, where we turn the packaging consumers discard into new recycled packaging."
Geminder went on to emphasise, however, that until this new legislation is in place, Australia relies on voluntary packaging targets and the goodwill of industry to make a difference.
"We need the new legislative framework now and I am somewhat disappointed at our pace, albeit I understand we are not the only priority and there is a lot to navigate in this monumental change for good.
"If the government and all of us get this right, we have an opportunity to make a truly positive impact on our environment, by reducing the amount of virgin resins we rely on and diverting more packaging waste from landfill, thereby contributing to an overall reduction in carbon emissions," he said.
Geminder made the point, as he has previously stated, that when it comes to resolving how the new National Packaging Laws could and should be shaped, there's no need to reinvent the wheel, Australia could look to examples from other countries that are already years ahead of us.
However, he said there is "one critical element" that government must get right to ensure the continued viability of Australia’s domestic recycling and packaging sectors.
"We must ensure that locally produced recycled material is not undermined by cheap products imported by businesses seeking to comply with mandated requirements," Geminder said, noting that Australia is a net importer of plastic packaging material which ends up in in our kerbside recycling system.
He stressed that markets for domestically produced recycled plastic must be prioritised, because the high costs of production in Australia can result in locally produced material competing on an uneven playing field with cheap virgin and recycled imports.
"To ensure a viable recycling system, get meaningful diversion from landfill, and fast track our progress towards a circular economy, we need mandatory requirements for the procurement and use of domestic recycled content in all packaging. Demand creation is a critical building block in the circular economy."
Industry, with support from government, has already invested heavily in infrastructure, to create a local circular economy for plastics. Geminder made the point that industry needs government to ensure that the new regulatory environment will adequately safeguard and grow our domestic recycling and manufacturing industries, otherwise Australia will fail to achieve its circular economy objectives.
Geminder was accompanied by Andrew Smith, the executive adviser for the Circular Economy at Pact, and Siobhan McCrory, the executive general manager, Sales, Marketing & Innovation at Pact.
Information about the inquiry is available at: Food and Beverage Manufacturing in Australia – Parliament of Australia
