Thank you to those companies, councils, individuals and tertiary students who entered this year’s Awards programme and congratulations to all our winners. The judges and technical advisors were extremely impressed with the high standard, effort and thought that had gone into the 59 entries, the design of products and the consideration of both processes and disposal issues relating to waste materials.
While we are making great progress against the eight measures of the Accord, the current political climate means that we cannot afford drop our game, with environmental issues dominating the political landscape for the foreseeable future.
The 2004 Packaging Accord highlights the importance of promoting and recognising excellence in environmentally acceptable packaging and "sustainability" is the buzz word of the moment. To produce a package which is acceptable for the protection and transport of the contents is NOT, in terms of sustainability, "sufficient" and the 2007 Awards programme continues to recognise the breadth of the issues which contribute not only to the "package" but to its conception through design, material selection, transport, recovery and ultimate disposal.
Brand owners and retailers play a pivotal role in packaging choices and in encouraging consumers to make informed decisions prior to purchase. The criteria for the brand owners / retailers category from the 2005 Awards was expanded and we received entries which demonstrated collaboration between the material sectors and brand owners / retailers to improve consumer awareness of recycling or wider environmental issues.
The Coca-Cola Amatil sponsored Award was renamed:
IMPROVED CONSUMER INFORMATION & INVOLVEMENT, which was awarded to the entry considered to represent the greatest contribution towards environmental excellence in encouraging the consumer to consider issues of disposal of packaging prior to purchase through key messages on product or through promotion or media coverage.
A new category in the 2007 programme was the INNOVATIVE USE OF SURPLUS WASTE CONTAINER GLASS.
It is for the identification of alternative uses for that glass not meeting furnace specification, or because of location, unable to be supplied to New Zealand's manufacturer of containers.
The award was sponsored by the Glass Packaging Forum and was directed at both the public and private sectors. The Forum was created for the express reason of establishing such uses to ensure all waste glass collected is utilised, thereby maintaining glass's long recognised position as an environmentally acceptable packaging material.
In total there were 10 categories for entrants to consider for entry. All entries were also eligible to win the highly coveted PACKAGING COUNCIL OF NEW ZEALAND SUPREME AWARD.
We would continue to ask that the SPIRIT of the awards be adhered to.
The programme was not set up to promote one material type over another but to recognise and reward those making a positive contribution in improving the overall impact of packaging, processes, systems etc on the New Zealand environment.
This programme would not be possible without the support of the 10 sponsoring companies and the Packaging Council is grateful for their ongoing participation as it is for the contributions made by the Judges and Technical Advisors.
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