A group of 190 Coles investors is calling on the supermarket group to disclose its plastic packaging footprint and set a reduction target, following Woolworths’ first publication of a plastic-intensity figure.
The shareholders have filed a members’ statement ahead of the Coles annual general meeting on 6 November, supported by the Sustainable Investment Exchange (SIX), Future Super and the Australian Marine Conservation Society (AMCS).
The group is asking Coles to report annually on the total volume of packaging used for its own-brand products across business-to-business and consumer applications, with a breakdown by material. For plastics, it wants either an absolute volume or a plastic-intensity measure.
Its requests also include a time-bound plastic reduction target, greater disclosure of opportunities to eliminate unnecessary packaging, expansion of reuse and refill models, and public support for eco-modulated extended producer responsibility.
The investor statement cites data from Seabin’s Sydney Harbour Pollution Intelligence dashboard, which identifies Woolworths and Coles as seventh and eighth respectively among the top 10 brands found in plastic litter recovered from the harbour.
It also states that 91 per cent of the plastic items recorded by Seabin are products available for sale through Coles, although this does not mean the retailer or its suppliers were responsible for the littering.
As Seabin CEO and co-founder Pete Ceglinski told PKN in a recent PKN Industry Update interview: “We know that the brand is not the polluter, but the branded litter is in the water.”
Seabin’s open-access platform classifies recovered material by plastic category, product, brand and parent company. As reported in PKN’s coverage of the dashboard launch, its purpose is to give brands and packaging companies greater visibility of the material escaping into the marine environment and provide data that can support prevention.
The AMCS media release announcing the shareholder action also points to the Clean Up Australia FY25 Litter Report, which found packaging accounted for 59.5 per cent of litter recorded nationally.
AMCS plastics and packaging program manager Tara Jones said disclosure was an essential starting point for reducing that impact.
“The less plastic that gets produced, the less plastic ends up polluting our environment. Publicly tracking plastic use is the first step to meaningful reduction,” Jones said.
The investor action follows Woolworths Group’s publication of a plastic-intensity figure for the first time in its 2026 Sustainability Data Pack. According to AMCS, the retailer reported an average of 10 grams of plastic packaging per own-brand unit sold across its supermarket and Big W businesses.
Woolworths separately reported that its own-brand plastic packaging contained an average of 31 per cent recycled content in FY26. The company says it has removed more than 20,000 tonnes of virgin plastic from its own-brand packaging since 2018, representing a cumulative reduction of 37 per cent.
The intensity disclosure establishes a reference point, although one year of data does not demonstrate whether total plastic consumption is rising or falling. Absolute plastic tonnage, plastic intensity, recycled content and recyclability measure different aspects of packaging performance, underscoring the importance of consistent reporting boundaries.
Coles reports progress against several packaging measures but does not currently publish an overall plastic-intensity figure or total plastic packaging footprint.
Its FY26 Sustainability Supplement states that 87.2 per cent of eligible Coles Own Brand and Coles Liquor Own Brand packaging was assessed as recyclable, compared with 87.6 per cent in FY25. Eligible packaging contained an average of 28.1 per cent recycled content across all materials.
Coles also reports that less than 0.5 per cent of the problematic and unnecessary single-use plastic packaging identified within its phase-out scope remains. More than 700 million pieces of conventional plastic have been removed from its own-brand packaging since 2021, including 108 million labels removed from fresh milk bottles during FY26.
The retailer says packaging decisions must balance material reduction and recyclability with product protection, food safety and customer usability.
“Coordinated national regulation, industry action and investment in recycling infrastructure will be necessary to achieve meaningful reductions in plastic waste at scale,” Coles states in the supplement.
The investor group argues, however, that reporting selected packaging projects and numbers of components removed does not provide a complete picture of the retailer’s plastic exposure or enable comparisons with its peers.
The latest Unwrapped supermarket plastics audit, published by AMCS and the Boomerang Alliance in 2025, gave all four major supermarket groups failing grades. Woolworths achieved the highest score at 38 per cent, followed by Metcash at 26 per cent, Coles at 19 per cent and Aldi at 14 per cent, with limited transparency contributing to the results.
PKN has approached Coles for a comment.
Editor's note: The shareholder action brings packaging measurement into sharper focus at a time when Australia’s proposed Commonwealth packaging scheme has been deferred. It also highlights the challenge of comparing retailer performance when companies report recyclability, recycled content, components eliminated and plastic intensity using different measures.
