Packaging awards honour sustainability excellence

Leading businesses were celebrated this week for their work towards improving packaging sustainability as part of the Australian Packaging Covenant Organisation’s (APCO) Annual Awards ceremony.

Businesses including Kellogg, Nestlé, Coles, BioPak, and CHEP were among the big winners, each taking home multiple accolades.

In total, 22 awards were handed out to businesses in industry sectors as diverse as retail, electronics, manufacturing, healthcare, food and beverage, and agriculture.

The finalists and winners (full list below) were recognised for their best practice approach to sustainable packaging design, industry leadership and sustainability education.

Kellogg Australia took home the ceremony’s main prize, the Sustainable Packaging Excellence Award, for their work to optimise 99 per cent of packaging for material efficiency by converting to a renewable packaging format along with the continued application of the Australasian Recycling Label on the company’s packaging.

The company now has more than 75 per cent of their packaging labelled as recyclable through the Australian kerbside or REDcycle system.

BioPak Founder Richard Fine took home the coveted Sustainability Champion Award in recognition of his tireless work championing compostable packaging and driving progress towards both the National Packaging Targets and the National Food Waste Strategy Targets.

Meanwhile, the Our Packaging Future (OPF) Awards, which celebrate projects and initiatives designed specifically to help Australia reach the 2025 National Packaging Targets, counted several well-known companies among its winners.

Nestlé Australia took home both the OPF Award for end-market leadership, for Australia’s first chemically recycled content soft food wrapper and the OPF Award for sustainability education (for consumers) for the KITKAT “Give the Planet a Break” recycling campaign.

BioPak was awarded the OPF Award for Improved Collection and Recycling Systems for Compost Connect, a food service focused organic recycling initiative and online platform.

Coles was recognised in the OPF Award for sustainability education (for industry) for its packaging data project across the Coles Own Brand supplier base.

APCO CEO Brooke Donnelly said: “Each and every finalist recognised here has demonstrated strong leadership and innovation over the last twelve months and we’ve witnessed many success stories that highlight the very essence of what Australia needs to achieve the 2025 National Packaging Targets – collaboration.

“It’s fantastic to see APCO’s Members continue to deliver such impressive initiatives as we all work together to achieve a circular economy for packaging in Australia.”

​APCO is a not-for-profit organisation leading the development of a circular economy for packaging in Australia.

Picture: REDcycle

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