FOOD AND GROCERY WELCOMES LEGISLATION TO INCREASE RECYCLING
The Australian Food and Grocery Council (AFGC) welcomes the passage of the Australian Government’s Recycling and Waste Reduction Act 2020 as a critical step towards increasing recycling rates and increasing the availability of recycled content in packaging by banning waste exports and moving to increased local remanufacturing.
AFGC CEO, Tanya Barden, congratulated the Government by saying “the food and grocery sector supports the Recycling and Waste Reduction Act as it strikes a balance for all sectors to collaborate in the end-of-life management of packaging and other materials.”
“By providing a clear policy framework, supported by the Recycling Modernisation Fund, the Modern Manufacturing Fund, and Product Stewardship Investment Fund, industry can confidently move towards creating a circular economy where packaging materials are not only collected locally, but recycled locally to produce high quality material able to be remanufactured into food grade packaging.”
“The AFGC will further support the Act by developing the National Plastic Recycling Product Stewardship Program to collect soft plastics such as bread bags, chips packets and chocolate wrappers.”
“The clear policy signals and funding support provided by Government, increases industry confidence to invest in the development of a circular economy.”
The Australian food and grocery sector remains committed to the 2025 National Packaging Targets,
- Make all packaging 100 per cent recyclable, re-usable or compostable;
- 70 per cent of plastic packaging is recycled or compostable;
- 50 per cent average recycled content in packaging;
- Problematic and unnecessary single-use plastics packaging phased out.