BioPak has been awarded the 2022 Excellence in Emissions Reduction through Product Stewardship for Compost Connect, its not-for-profit initiative and national composting network.
Announced at the Product Stewardship Centre of Excellence in Sydney, the award recognises the product stewardship initiative which connects foodservice businesses and individuals to composters and certified compostable packaging suppliers so that their food waste and compostable packaging can be returned to nutrient soil.
The awards acknowledge achievements across stewardship outcomes for collective schemes and individual businesses, the use of digital technology and reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, with BioPak commended for its approach to the design of its compostable packaging and to reducing methane emissions relative to food waste going to landfill, while cycling nutrients via compost.
Product Stewardship requires producers and retailers to better manage the impacts of products and material streams through their lifecycle.
“We take our role and responsibility in championing circular solutions for our products incredibly seriously and are beyond proud to be recognised by The Product Stewardship Centre of Excellence in this area,” said BioPak founder Richard Fine.
“There is a significant environmental benefit and opportunity to recover and recycle a larger portion of the nearly 900,000 tonnes of organic waste and reduce unnecessary and problematic single-use plastic disposables consumed within the foodservice and hospitality sector, while simultaneously recovering and recycling an estimated 17 billion individual single-use foodservice disposables,” he added. “Composting is a scalable solution to our current waste crisis, and we will continue to champion innovation to help fight the war on waste.”
Structured as a collaborative, open, not-for-profit organisation, Compost Connect allows businesses to identify suppliers of certified compostable packaging and connect to organic waste recovery and recycling service providers.
Packaging suppliers and distributors can apply to become members, subject to supplying certified compostable packaging and meeting Compost Connect’s eligibility criteria, here.
In June this year the Australian Institute of Packaging (AIP) hosted a virtual tour of BioPak's Compost Connect network to help its members gain an understanding of how composting fits into the circular economy.
