PACKAGING COUNCIL (SECRETARIAT)

PACKAGING ACCORD
YEAR THREE PROGRESS REPORT

Tony Nowell
Chair
Accord Governing Board

Working together is paying dividends. New Zealanders recycled 20% more packaging in the year reported, achieving a record 57% recovery as a percentage of consumption. To put this in perspective, this increase equates to an annual saving of around 33,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide or taking approximately 8000 cars off the road.

(NSW Dept of Environment & Conservation Recycling Calculator)

When we signed the Packaging Accord in 2004, we jointly accepted responsibility as stewards of packaging from its design through to its disposal. It has not been easy and I am sure I speak for every signatory when I say that more often the critics have had much louder voices than the supporters.

However, with each Governing Board meeting and as cross-sector meetings brought parties together, the opportunities started to outweigh the challenges. An example of this is that the packaged goods industry and recycling operators agreed that the efficiency of kerbside collections must not be threatened by calls for container deposit legislation.

I am reminded of Henry Ford's words:-

Coming together is a beginning, keeping together is progress, working together is success.

We have already surpassed the five-year recycling targets for paper and steel and are at least 95% of the way to achieving the targets for aluminium, glass and plastic. This achievement is down to sheer hard work. Each sector report describes the effort that has gone into delivering these results and the partnerships that have evolved along the way.

• Glass recycling has turned around thanks to partnerships developed between industry, recycling operators and local councils;
• More robust data is available about the production, consumption and recovery of steel and aluminium containers because the manufacturers of cans; the brand owners who fill them; the supermarkets that sell them; and the scrap metal brokers, recycling operators and exporters who process them, are all part of the loop;
• Local councils and recycling operators increased kerbside collections and the types of materials that they collect resulting in better recyclability of plastics and new domestic markets opening up;
• 76% of all paperboard is recycled which puts New Zealand amongst the world leaders; and
• Consumers are increasingly aware of their role, thanks to campaigns by supermarkets to reduce the use of plastic bags and steel's children's cartoon Hanable the CAN-able.

Our recycling rate compares favourably with that of Australia, UK and the European average and, with this momentum, all parties are determined that the Accord targets will not just be met but exceeded.

This year the Governing Board participated in a strategic review of the Accord setting out what needs to happen to take this voluntary agreement beyond 2009 and to understand its continuing relevancy within the context of the Waste Minimisation (Solids) Bill. Whilst there are those who say that a voluntary agreement is too weak or that the targets were not tough enough, the commitment shown by every member of this Accord reaffirms my view that organisations respond best if they are part of the solution.

Industry is under no illusion that it has two years to prove to local and central government that it is making packaging decisions that maximise recyclability; helping develop new recycling markets; and incorporating recycling messages as part of its marketing.

Local and central government have a reciprocal responsibility to ensure that people know where, what and how to recycle and to encourage new markets for recycling. The Government's proposed public place recycling and the decision by Auckland and Manukau councils to build Australasia's most high tech recycling centre will assist in this process.

I would like to thank the Governing Board and the Accord secretariat for their ideas, enthusiasm and support.

PACKAGING COUNCIL OF NEW ZEALAND
ACTING AS THE NZ PACKAGING ACCORD SECRETARIAT
77 Greenmount Drive, East Tamaki, Manukau
PO Box 58899, Greenmount, Auckland
PHONE: 09 271 4044, FAX: 09 271 4041