The National Packaging Covenant Council is working on a draft document for environment Ministers to consider in November to continue the Covenant post 2010 when the current arrangements expire.
This will represent a further evolution in the management of used packaging in Australia.
This will be the third Covenant of its type and it is now generally agreed there needs to be a greater awareness that for packaging to be sustainable, full lifecycle considerations need to be taken and that a single focus on recycling of used packaging may be counter-productive.
In this way, the new Covenant draft will focus more on design for sustainability, incorporating the concepts of “cradle-to-cradle” and life cycle analysis — to ensure sustainable practices are implemented by the supply chain.
It recognises that packaging policy needs to also focus on recovery strategies for energy and water consumption, greenhouse gas emissions and other environmental priorities.
The first National Packaging Covenant was a five year model commencing in 1999. It represented a fresh new approach to packaging management in Australia.
Tasked with improving kerbside recycling, it injected a $19 million boost into household collection systems, making a solid contribution to what we have today, where an estimated 97% of Australian households have access to a recycling service.
For the first time ever, it established a national framework for managing the life of packaging based on a collaborative approach between the supply chain and governments.
A big win has been that since the Covenant’s inception Australian recycling rates have increased to around 57% in 2008.
This is in part due to the funding provided by signatories, which is matched by governments, and now helps fund more than 70 projects around Australia worth over $90 million building collection and recycling infrastructure for used packaging.
It has also resulted in improvements to the way packaging is designed, manufactured, distributed and recovered.
There is a forum, the National Packaging Covenant Council, where packaging design and recovery issues can be debated.
The current Covenant has been strengthened to ensure signatories are more accountable for their actions and this will also be a feature of a future Covenant.
The future for packaging is looking bright and we are working towards a sustainable future for Australia.
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