Food and drink manufacturers are increasingly adopting lighter, cleaner, and easier-to-recycle packaging solutions. This shift is driven by efforts to reduce costs, minimize waste, and comply with anticipated new regulations.
Key Drivers for Packaging Innovation
- Cost Efficiency: More compact packaging allows for more units per pallet, leading to more efficient transport and reduced fuel costs. It also makes stacking easier, potentially reducing breakage.
- Sustainability: Consumers are increasingly influenced by the sustainability of products, pushing manufacturers to innovate.
- Waste Reduction: Australia generates over 7 million tonnes of packaging waste annually, prompting industry changes.
- Regulatory Changes: Anticipated national packaging reforms aim to shift from voluntary targets to a mandatory system, requiring a minimum percentage of recycled material in packaging and banning toxic chemicals.
- Market Expansion: Clever use of labels and QR codes can meet specific international requirements, potentially opening new export markets.
Examples of Packaging Innovations
- Square juice bottles and slim wine cans: Optimize space and weight.
- Lighter wine bottles: Address the fact that glass bottle production accounts for a significant portion (around 34%) of the wine industry's emissions.
- Single-type plastic films: Replace multi-layered films to improve recyclability.
- Ready-made meal trays: Shifting away from black plastic, which is difficult for recycling scanners to detect.
- Tethered caps: Ensure the bottle and lid can be recycled together.
- Clearer labels: Better indicate recycling instructions.
- Paper wrappers: Mars bars are noted as an example of shifting to paper packaging.
Industry and Retailer Involvement
- ANZ Head of Agribusiness Insights, Michael Whitehead, notes that packaging acts as "mini-advertising" and influences shopper behavior.
- Endeavour Group (Dan Murphy's, BWS) is part of the Sustainable Wine Roundtable, committing to reducing the weight of wine bottles.
- Woolworths aims for 60% recycled content in its own-brand packaging, currently at 51%.
- Coles and Coles Liquor report that 87.6% of their own-brand packaging is recyclable.
- The Australian Food & Grocery Council (AFGC) highlights the complexity for manufacturers due to varying state and territory laws, advocating for national packaging reform.
The Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water is expected to conduct further consultations on national packaging reform, with draft regulations anticipated to introduce mandatory requirements.