Australia: Implementing the National Packaging Covenant

Covenant

The Covenant was developed in response to increasing concerns about the environmental impacts of packaging and diminishing landfill capacity.

It is a voluntary component of a co-regulatory arrangement for managing the environmental impacts of consumer packaging in Australia. The agreement is based on the principles of shared responsibility through product stewardship, between key stakeholders in the packaging supply chain, the community and all spheres of government - Federal, State, Territory and Local.

Covenant signatories commit to minimise the environmental impacts arising from the disposal of used packaging, conserve resources through better design and production processes and facilitate the re-use and recycling of used packaging materials.

The covenant establishes a framework for the effective life cycle management of consumer packaging and paper products, delivered through a collaborative approach between all sectors of the packaging supply chain, consumers, recyclables collectors, re-processors and governments.

The aim is to minimize packaging materials use, reduce packaging waste and to encourage economically viable and sustainable recycling systems.

Signatories are required to develop and submit an action plan detailing how they propose to implement their covenant commitments and report annually on their progress. Additionally industry signatories must implement and comply with the Environmental Code of Practice for Packaging. The core strategies of the Code are: -

∙Source reduction;

∙Potential for packaging reuse;

∙Recovery and recycling;

∙Ability to incorporate recycled content;

∙Minimizing impacts of packaging;

∙Propensity to become litter; and

∙Consumer information.

Regulatory underpinning is provided by the National Environmental Protection (Used Packaging Materials) Measure (NEPM), designed to deal with ‘free riders’ and non-signatories and applied at a jurisdictional level.