Accord Annual Report 2007 - Packaging Council of New Zealand (Inc)

The Packaging Council brings together packaging manufacturers, recycling operators, brand owners and retailers. The New Zealand packaging industry is valued at NZ$ 2 billion. Members manufacture over 75% of New Zealand's top 100 food and grocery brands contributing over NZ$17 billion to the local economy.

Packaging Council membership

The Packaging Council's response to the Waste Minimisation (Solids) Bill was to inform discussion, commissioning an independent cost benefit analysis of container deposit legislation and the cost of a mandatory 'return to retailer' scheme for all packaging.

To promote the Accord it adopted a high profile, inviting international packaging expert David Perchard to talk about the EU Packaging & Packaging Waste Directive; ran a series of workshops on sustainable packaging; and a seminar to assess the implications of a waste levy.

The responses to the annual audit conducted by members into their in-house waste minimisation and product stewardship performance indicate improvement, with aluminium, glass and paper sector members scoring over 80%. The appointment of an Environment Manager has led to greater support for members to establish measurement and management systems for waste and provides a focal point between the packaging manufacturer, brand owner and recycling industry to 'join the dots' and develop new markets for recovered materials.

Identifying an opportunity as a result of frequent questions about how to manage events more sustainably, the Packaging Council is working with Landcare Research under their carboNZeroTM programme to develop a comprehensive event management package.

With industry on board, public awareness is critical. The '12 days to a greener Christmas' campaign, in conjunction with local councils and community newspapers, challenged people to think about recycling.

To monitor the effectiveness of how Accord parties communicate to the consumer and rate payer about recycling, the Packaging Council commissioned independent media analysis.

In total, positive messages about recycling reached just over 3 million people and the survey has identified opportunities for improvement.

Key findings from the media survey

Local newspapers then daily newspapers contributed almost two thirds of the total coverage.
The Consumer's role in recycling was the most frequently delivered message, followed by that of brand owners and retailers. All other messages were delivered positively, but media coverage rarely got across the more detailed metals, paper or plastics messages.
Messages focusing on the voluntary agreement, consumer role and targets all had a reach of over 1 million in the media, with high voluntary and targets scores due to news coverage in national media, in particular of the proposed new legislation.

Click here to view the 2007 Annual Report [663KB pdf].


	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