Sustainability Insider: September 2025

Sustainability Insider

16 September 2025

Welcome to the September edition of Sustainability Insider, where we explore some of the newest initiatives reducing Australian FMCG’s environmental footprint.

Industry insights

iQRenew Soft Plastic Engineered Commodity facility officially opens in Taree

iQRenew’s Soft Plastic Engineered Commodity (SPEC) facility in Taree, NSW, officially opened on 27 August 2025 to stakeholders from industry, government and stewardship groups, showcasing how household soft plastics can be transformed into valuable resources at scale.

Operational for some time, the plant currently processes up to 14,000 tonnes of soft plastics annually, with the potential to increase to 24,000 tonnes with new government funding. The opening highlighted in-demand end markets including prototypes like a PE bottle with 30% recycled content and 100% recycled-content bin bags, as well as full traceability via the Curby Smart Recycling Platform.

New government support for farmers to improve emission accounting

As part of its commitment to support farmers and producers reduce emissions and boost productivity, the Albanese Labor Government is partnering with industry to put Australia at the forefront of on-farm emissions accounting approaches worldwide. Agricultural Innovation Australia (AIA) has been awarded a $6.4 million grant to help improve the consistency of farm level greenhouse gas emissions calculators.

AIA will provide free access to their Environmental Accounting Platform and open source calculator code through to June 2028, which will support the incorporation of voluntary emissions standards into industry accounting tools and calculators.

For more information on AIA’s Environmental Accounting Platform, click here >>

NSW expands its FOGO recycling capacity

Thanks to a $10 million NSW government package, over 263,000 more households across ten Greater Sydney councils will gain access to weekly Food Organics and Garden Organics (FOGO) recycling, supported by $5.3 million in funding. An additional $344,000 funds has been allocated for targeted education through the Go FOGO program. The initiative addresses Greater Sydney’s looming landfill crisis and builds capacity ahead of mandatory weekly collections from 1 July 2030.

Veolia unveils Australia’s first AI powered robot arm to boost recycling rates

Veolia Australia and New Zealand has introduced the nation’s first AI-powered robot arm at its Bibra Lake Resource Recovery Park in Western Australia. Trained on a dataset of three billion items, the system can accurately sort seven types of plastic including PET and mixed colours with 95% accuracy, and at speeds two to three times faster than traditional methods. Overseas implementations have shown that a single AI sorting arm on the “last-chance line” can increase resource recovery rates by 40–70%. This innovation not only improves recycling rates but also boosts safety, lowers labour costs, and delivers real-time analytics, all under Veolia’s global GreenUp strategy.

Read the full media release >>

White paper: 5 Key Trends Shaping the Packaging Industry

Smithers, a global authority in packaging, paper, and print research with over 80 years of expertise, has released a white paper titled “5 Key Trends Shaping the Packaging Industry.” It highlights five transformative trends:

consumer packaged goods (CPG) sustainability strategies are becoming more holistic and plural;

sustainability alone no longer resonates as a value proposition;

Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) is accelerating and diversifying globally;

recyclability definitions are becoming both more complex and more vital;

business models are shifting toward local and circular value chains.

Download the white paper here >>

Policy and regulation – Australia

Australia appoints Ambassador for Climate Change

The Albanese Government has appointed Will Nankervis as Australia’s next Ambassador for Climate Change, reinforcing its commitment to international climate action. Nankervis, a senior DFAT officer and current First Assistant Secretary for Climate Diplomacy, will lead Australia’s climate diplomacy, particularly with Pacific and Southeast Asian partners. He will coordinate across government, advocate globally, and advance Australia’s foreign policy, economic, and development interests. Nankervis brings extensive diplomatic experience, having served as Ambassador to ASEAN and held postings at the UN in New York and the Australian High Commission in Colombo.

NSW boosts clean energy targets

New South Wales has boosted its renewable energy goal from 12 GW to 16 GW by 2030 and long-duration storage targets to 42 GWh by 2034 (up from 28 GWh). To achieve this, NSW will issue additional tenders for firming infrastructure including storage, demand response, and batteries starting in late 2025, with further long-duration storage tenders arriving through 2027. Generation infrastructure tenders under the Electricity Infrastructure Roadmap are set to resume in mid-2026, aiming to quicken renewables deployment, attract investment and help reduce power prices.

ASIC releases new comms channel: Reporting and audit update

ASIC has released the first issue of their new Reporting and audit update. The publication will cover regulatory developments on sustainability and financial reporting matters, including climate related disclosures, scope 3 and sustainability-related claims.

Read the first issue here >>

Joint Research Report: Preparedness of ASX-listed entities for climate-related reporting and assurance requirements

The Australian Accounting Standards Board, Auditing and Assurance Standards Board, and Chartered Accountants Australia & New Zealand have released a report examining trends in annual report disclosures in 2023 and 2024.

Download the full report here >>

Roundtable consensus drives fast-tracing of EPBC reform

Minister for the Environment and Water, Murray Watt, announced the Albanese Government’s plans to accelerate the timeline on its national environmental law reforms, with plans to introduce the legislation to Parliament before the end of 2025.

Backed by broad consensus at August’s economic reform roundtable, the reforms aim to deliver stronger environmental protections, faster and simpler project approvals, and greater transparency, in line with the 2021 Samuel Review. The bill will introduce new national environmental standards, cut duplication in assessments, and establish a Federal Environmental Protection Agency. Environment Minister Murray Watt said the reforms are vital to protect nature while enabling housing, jobs, renewable energy, and critical minerals projects to proceed efficiently.

NSW & SA to expand container deposit schemes by late 2027

New South Wales and South Australia will expand their successful 10-cent Container Deposit Schemes (CDS) to include wine and spirit bottles, cordial and juice concentrate containers, and larger drink containers up to three litres by late 2027.

The broader inclusion is expected to divert nearly half a billion additional beverage containers from landfill annually, saving at least 27,000 tonnes of material in NSW alone. While plain milk and health tonic containers remain excluded, the governments will consult closely with industry to ensure a smooth transition and ramp-up of collection systems. Residents are encouraged to continue using kerbside recycling in the interim.

Policy and regulation – International

US Chamber of Commerce’s attempt to overturn California reporting laws denied

Federal judge Otis Wright II has rejected the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s attempt to block California’s climate disclosure laws (SB 253 and SB 261), ruling they do not unconstitutionally compel speech under the First Amendment. SB 253 mandates greenhouse-gas emissions disclosure (including indirect sources) for companies with over $1 billion in annual revenue, and SB 261 requires biannual climate-related financial risk reporting for those earning over $500 million. The judge found both serve substantial state interests and promote transparency and informed investment. Judge Wright denied injunction requests, allowing implementation of the new laws to proceed.

Partners in Sustainability

SPSA appoints inaugural Stakeholder Advisory Council

Soft Plastics Stewardship Australia has announced the members of its inaugural Stakeholder Advisory Council (SAC) to guide the development of Australia’s national soft plastics product stewardship scheme, pending the program’s full ACCC authorisation. The council includes representatives from government agencies, local councils, recycling operations, retail, policy, and consumer engagement sectors. SPSA emphasises that the SAC will offer meaningful strategic input to build an effective, inclusive, transparent, end-to-end stewardship program – not merely a collection scheme – with accountability central to its design.

Contact

Sarah Collier – Director, Sustainability sarah.collier@afgc.org.au