The role packaging plays in reducing the environmental impact of food waste is to be investigated in the new season of Sustaining Australia TV, an online news series dedicated to Australia’s food and grocery manufacturing industry.
The fourth season of the series created by the Australian Food and Grocery Council (AFGC) and ASN Media, has been released online and features expert interviews and behind-the-scenes stories about Australia’s largest manufacturing industry.
Among this year’s stories is the Fight Food Waste Cooperative Research Centre's latest research into the role of food packaging. CEO of the centre, Dr Stephen Lapidge, said on the series that while many consumers think food packaging is a bigger environmental issue than food waste, the opposite is true: "If you reduce packaging too much then you will increase food waste and there's a lot more environmental damage created by increasing food waste than creating the packaging."
The series includes SaveBOARD, a project with Tetra Pak which sees used cartons repurposed into construction material, as well as its collaboration with APR Kerbside in using robots to sort recycling; and Packserv, which is looking at ways to bring packaging manufacturing back onshore through its collaboration with the University of Technology Sydney. The soft plastics kerbside recycling program by the National Plastics Recycling Scheme (NPRS) is also covered, explaining how in the trials currently underway the soft plastics are collected, recycled, processed and converted by Amcor.
Industry experts such as APCO CEO Chris Foley, AFGC CEO Tanya Barden, APR Kerbside's MD Darren Thorpe, Packserv's MD Nathan Wardell, SaveBOARD's CEO Paul Charteris, and Tetra Pak's former MD Andrew Pooch were featured, providing their insights into the endeavours.
There are four episodes in total, covering various issues in Australian food and grocery manufacturing, including the future of manufacturing, the role of regional businesses, building circular economies, and reducing emissions. The full series can be viewed here.
