Leading Australian retailer Coles has reaffirmed its commitment to packaging sustainability by joining the Australia, New Zealand and Pacific Islands Plastics Pact (ANZPAC) as a founding member.
Led by The Australian Packaging Covenant Organisation (APCO), the new pact commits Coles to four clear, actionable targets by 2025.
These include:
• Eliminating unnecessary and problematic plastic packaging
• Ensuring 100 per cent of plastic packaging is recyclable, reusable or compostable
• Increasing the current volume of plastic packaging collected and effectively recycled by at least 25 per cent
• Ensuring an average of 25 per cent recycled content is in plastic packaging across the region
By joining the ANZPAC Plastics Pact, Coles joins a group of leading packaging manufacturers, resource recovery leaders, government institutions and retailers representing the complete plastics value chain, working towards a shared vision of a circular economy for plastic.
Coles chief executive commercial and express, Greg Davis, said the partnership will help fulfill the retailer’s recently launched Together to Zero sustainability strategy, committing to deliver net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 and long-term aspiration towards zero waste and zero hunger.
“As one of Australia’s largest retailers, Coles understands the importance of working collaboratively to find a more sustainable future for plastic packaging,” said Davis.
“Following the launch of our new Together to Zero sustainability strategy, we have an ambition to be Australia’s most sustainable supermarket, working with our suppliers, customers and other stakeholders towards zero waste.
“As a founding member of the ANZPAC Plastics Pact, we now have an opportunity to build and shape meaningful change through plastic packaging and move towards a circular plastic economy as a global community,” he added.
APCO chief executive Brooke Donnelly congratulated Coles on joining the ANZPAC Plastics Pact as a founding Member.
“ANZPAC is a collaborative programme that unites businesses, policymakers and NGOs behind a shared vision of a circular economy for plastic, where it never becomes waste or pollution,” explained Donnelly.
“The ambitious new cross-regional programme will work to fundamentally transform our response to plastic by eliminating the plastics we don’t need, innovating to ensure that the plastics we do need are reusable, recyclable, or compostable, and circulating the plastic we use, keeping it in the economy and out of the environment.
“As one of our founding members, Coles will be one of the leading retail voices throughout this journey, helping us to build and shape a programme that delivers meaningful change on the plastics issues.”
As part of its refreshed ‘Together to Zero’ sustainability strategy, Coles announced a joint feasibility study into an Australian-first advanced recycling facility which will aim to turn soft plastic back into oil to produce new soft plastic food packaging.
