Benchmarking for National Packaging Targets

Product packaging plays an important role in the food services sector. It helps to maintain the quality and safety of ingredients and products as they are delivered to restaurants, cafes and other food outlets. It also provides a convenient way for customers to ‘take-away’ and consume the food that they purchase.

The food services sector plays a vital role in the Australian economy, however it is also one of the highest consumers of problematic and unnecessary packaging, including single-use plastic.

APCO is currently delivering a program of projects throughout 2019 to help achieve the 2025 National Packaging Targets and address this problematic and unnecessary single-use plastic packaging at a national level.

The Food Service Packaging Guidelines falls under APCO’s Project 6, which includes strategies targeting this sector to encourage avoidance, reduction, reuse, material recycling and organics recycling. This project will assist in addressing challenges and opportunities by bringing together the food services sector, industry, government, and community stakeholders to develop a coordinated, evidenced based approach to reducing the impact of food service packaging throughout the supply chain.

The result of this collaboration has seen the development of sector-specific Food Services Packaging Guidelines, case studies and collaborative initiatives to address single use, problematic/unnecessary and compostable packaging applications.  The Guidelines will be available to download on the APCO website in the coming weeks www.packagingcovenant.org.au.

If you’re interested in learning more about the topic, APCO CEO Brooke Donnelly will be leading a dedicated discussion at this year’s AWRE. The session will address the challenges of increasing the uptake of more sustainable packaging in the food services sector, collaboration initiatives and the implementation of the new guidelines. For the session, Brooke will be joined by Richard Fine, Founder of BioPak, the leading supplier of compostable single use food service disposable packaging, the Australian Food & Grocery Council’s Director of Sustainability and Detmold Group’s, Group General Manager – Marketing & Innovation, Tom Lunn.

Session details:

‘Australia’s Best Practice Food Services Packaging Guidelines’

AWRE Food Waste Stage

12-1pm, Thursday 31 October.