New faces at The Packaging Forum

New faces at The Packaging Forum set to grow voluntary packaging product stewardship

The Packaging Forum’s Governing Board has elected Andrew Hewett, Head of Communications at Coca-Cola Amatil NZ as its new Chair. Andrew is also Chair of the Public Place Recycling Scheme. Alistair Sayers, Packaging Manager at Frucor Beverages was appointed as Chair of the Glass Packaging Forum’s Steering Committee.

Nearly a year after The Packaging Forum launched as a new packaging association to build on the platform of its two accredited voluntary product stewardship schemes for glass and public place recycling, the organization shows record growth with 32 new members joining one of our schemes or associated projects.

Andrew Hewett said his appointment comes at a great time in the organisation’s growth:

“Few membership organisations grow at a rate of more than 2 new members a month which shows that our voluntary product stewardship schemes provide industry with an effective way to invest in end of life recycling solutions. There is a view that if it is voluntary it can’t work but over the past decade the Glass Packaging Forum (now The Packaging Forum) has shown what can be achieved through industry led voluntary product stewardship programmes.”

“New Zealand’s Glass Recycling Rate is now 72.8% and matches the EU average for 28 countries. Four years ago ahead of the Rugby World Cup we took over the operational management of the Love NZ public place recycling programme and since then we have tripled public place recycling bins nationwide and have a target to triple them again by 2020. Since kick off at Eden Park in September 2011, around 12,000 tonnes of packaging has been diverted from landfill by PPR project partners. That’s enough bottles, cans and cartons to fill Twickenham Stadium to half way up the stands.”

“This year the Packaging Forum commissioned the first national Litter Survey which provides a benchmark for measuring litter and targets a 10% reduction by 2020 through partnerships between industry and local government. A Working Group comprising representatives from leading brands, councils and recyclers is using the survey data and analyzing collection costs to develop recommendations to reduce littering and increase what gets recycled in public places.”

“Next month we launch the first drop off recycling bins at participating New World, PakNSave, Countdown and The Warehouse stores in Auckland. This will allow shoppers for the first time to recycle the wide range of soft plastic packaging which every household uses such as bread bags, frozen food bags, confectionery wrap, pasta and rice bags, toilet paper packaging, sanitary hygiene packaging and courier envelopes. The aim is for over 70% New Zealanders to have access to drop off facilities within a 20km radius of their home or workplace.”

“Thanks to the funding provided by the Government’s Waste Minimisation Fund for the soft plastics programme, we will be able to move faster and to more regions than we would otherwise be able to do and as importantly their financial support shows that this is a true partnership between Industry, Government and the Community working together to promote recycling and the Love NZ brand.”

ENDS

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