Continuing the discussion on Sustainability and the Circular Economy at the Leaders’ Forum on 18 May, APCO CEO Brooke Donnelly moderated a panel discussion, with Mondelez International’s Paul Chatfield, Amcor’s director of Sustainability, Richard Smith and Steve Morriss, founder - Close the Loop.
These leaders, with Donnelly, fleshed out the packaging industry’s responsibility when it comes to waste, practical design steps that businesses can take to move to a circular economy, growth and collaboration opportunities, and how to change consumer behaviour through packaging recycling messaging.
Key take-outs on these topics were discussed by Chatfield from a brand perspective. He highlighted the importance of collaboration and the role of the consumer in addressing waste, and pointed out the importance of designing materials, which when collected, would be of value, and that there should be more of a focus on consumer education behaviour and internal alignment in messaging.
Chatfield then cited two examples of how Mondelez is moving towards more sustainable options with its Easter Egg packs, and plans to trial chocolate block packaging with 30 per cent recycled content around September.
Amcor Richard Smith discussed Amcor’s intention to address the key issues of carbon, plastics and micro plastics in packaging. He said there was a need to ensure that the design of materials should meet guidelines for this to happen, and that Amcor had been moving with those guidelines, and has achieved 80 per cent success in this area.
Smith went on to point out that the key to success is collaboration across the value chain, citing Result Group, Xeon, Cleanaway, IQ renew and Quenos as good opportunities for collaborative growth. He also discussed the HolyGrail 2.0 digital watermarks initiative, which is helping to drive a circular economy through better recycling.
Also emphasisng the importance of design for recycling was Close the Loop with REDcycle ’s Steve Morriss, who said the design of the material was just as important as the design of the product.
In terms of steps businesses can take, Morriss said that emotional intelligence was key and that there should be more awareness about the impact of secondary packaging, such as shrink wrap, citing the example of Polyrok, a replacement mineral aggregate in concrete which was made from 95% REDcycle soft plastics.
In terms of consumer behaviour Morriss said that it is becoming easier for consumer to put plastic in recyclables but that the government should clamp down on what’s allowed.
