The Australian Packaging Covenant Organisation (APCO), under the Australia New Zealand Pacific Island (ANZPAC) Plastics Pact, has launched a new document that highlights the approach required to achieve the Regional Plastic Targets by 2025.
The ANZPAC Roadmap to 2025 outlines the actions needed by key players across the entire plastics value chain to achieve the 2025 Targets, and more broadly, to develop a circular economy for plastics.
The ANZPAC Roadmap makes it clear why we need a regional pact. Simply put, the report says, "If we fail to act, by 2040, the volume of plastic on the market will double, the annual volume of plastic entering the ocean will almost triple, and ocean plastic stocks will quadruple".
“This incredible collaboration across countries highlights the critical importance of coming together as a region to learn from each other, align and accelerate the work to overhaul our relationship with plastic packaging, and develop long-term sustainable solutions,” said Brooke Donnelly, APCO’s outgoing-CEO.
“If our work is to be successful, it’s vital that businesses across the packaging value chain throughout Oceania familiarise themselves with the actions outlined in this Roadmap, and incorporate these into their business planning.”
The Roadmap is the culmination of extensive discussions between more than 100 organisations, both large and small, coming together across the ANZPAC region over the past year, to outline the necessary outcomes and activities required to achieve the ANZPAC Targets.
“We’re working hard to reduce our use of virgin plastics and make our packaging recyclable or reusable, but we know we need to do more, and we know we can’t do it alone,” said Margaret Stuart, Oceania director corporate affairs and sustainability at Nestle.
“The ANZPAC Roadmap gives us a framework within which we can collaborate in the region to ensure that packaging can be collected and recovered for a better future.”
It provides a pathway to substantially change our relationship with plastic packaging by recognising the unique position of the organisations involved, and identifying the common barriers to achieving a circular economy in the region, including access to data, geographical challenges, market size, technology, and cultural challenges.
According to Richard Kirkman, CEO of Veolia ANZ, the circular economy demands that we pivot the entire supply chain.
“Manufacturers need to make products that can be easily recycled, and that use recycled raw materials, and local authorities need to implement better and more consistent collection systems,” Kirkman explained.
“Also, recycling businesses like ourselves need to build greater capacity for reprocessing, and consumers should vote with their purchase power, and then put the right thing in the right bin.
“Now is the time to execute the ANZPAC Plastics Pact Roadmap so that we can meet the targets we’ve set. The changes we make will work, but only if we work together and all play our part.”
The Roadmap identifies organisations from across the supply chain with leading, supporting or consulting roles for each of the core activities aligned to each of the Targets.
The four ANZPAC Regional Plastics Targets are:
- Eliminating unnecessary and problematic plastic packaging through redesign, innovation and alternative (reuse) delivery models;
- 100 per cent of plastic packaging will be reusable, recyclable or compostable by 2025;
- Increasing plastic packaging collected and effectively recycled by 25 per cent for each geography within the ANZPAC region; and
- Achieving an average of 25 per cent recycled content in plastic packaging across the region.
The full roadmap is available to download here, or can be accessed on the APCO website.
