packaging recovery final gm
TRANSCRIPT
About ACOR• Formed in 1983
• A national peak representative body for the recycling and resource recovery industry –any organisation can join, only one LGA which is odd
• Our core business
o Lobbying governments for policies and regulations that support organisations in the recycling and resource recovery industry
o Advising our members on what’s going to happen next!
• >80% of all recycling activity
• >30 million tonnes p.a.
• 40,000+ jobs and growing
Key barriers to increasing recovery and recycling of packaging1. Packaging design
2. Manufacturer’s resistance
3. Lack of supply chain alignment
4. Lack of investment/ infrastructure
5. Landfill costs
6. Uncertainties of regulatory standards
7. Regulatory failures
8. Increasing complexity of packaging
9. Increasingly packaging is not recyclable/recoverable
10. Lack of end-of-life markets/ price
The “old” waste hierarchy
• This is linear, not circular, but a useful intermediate /transitional framework
Unnecessary complexity
Age of new materials
Institutional Change
Circular e
conomy
Technological change uneven
Packaging
Recycling
Technological developments
Time
Design for recovery
• Material information
• Progressive reduction of contaminants
• More effective sorting
• Easy dismantling – not using multiple polymers or mixing different
types of materials that cannot be separated
consumers cannot make a mistake
if there are no mistake to be made
Future packaging resource recovery trends – International context
• In 2009 China passed new law to form a Circular Economy
• Major strategic importance – if successful will set a new level for global competitiveness
• Part of the law is a Packaging Master Plan comprising of legislation that will restrict, recover, recycle and reuse all packaging materials.
• “Green Wall/Fence/hedgerow- in Chinglish • Contaminated plastic imports being stopped by customs
Future pathway of packaging waste? Sustainability of current system?
1999-00
2000-01
2001-02
2002-03
2003-04
2004-05
2005-06
2006-07
2007-08
2008-09
2009-10
2010-11
2011-12
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
Waste Exports
PaperGlassPlastics
In $
mill
ion
Big Changes
• Price volatility+ divergence + scarcity • Just the beginning, as developing countries deal
with their own packaging time bombs• Need for local reprocessing infrastructure support
from government• Made to be made again, design for recovery/ M&A
of supply chain• Deployment of information technology • Policy/ regulatory agenda change for a circular
materials economy
ACOR
ACOR will continue to advise our members and governments and our members on
these transformations