MAY 2005:

We are excited to bring you the first issue of ACCORDing to Packaging , our regular e-zine keeping you informed about the progress of the Packaging Accord 2004. As this is the first issue we are taking the opportunity to outline who we are, re-cap the story so far, share some of your good stories and touch on some of the news stories we have been following in New Zealand and internationally.

In future ACCORDing to Packaging will link back to our revamped website, for the moment we are still working on our extreme website make-over so this time links are direct to the source of the story.

ACCORDing to Packaging will have regular features sharing the projects and progress of the industry, sectors and cross-sector working groups with an overview from the Packaging Council, Accord Governing Board and Secretariat. We will have information both local and international on environmental packaging issues, technology and research that we think will interest you and your organisation as we all journey down the Accord path.

Most importantly we want to be sure that the information and format work for you. Any feedback and suggestions are warmly encouraged . Please email comments to Deb Statham (d.statham@packaging.org.nz).

We also invite you to share ACCORDing to Packaging with your colleagues and other interested people/parties.

Visit the Packaging Council of New Zealand website.

IN THIS FIRST ISSUE WE WILL COVER

•  Who we are

How the Packaging Council of New Zealand fits into the Accord

•  The Packaging Accord 2004

Who, what, where, when, why

•  Progress and News from the Sector Groups

And some of the cross-sector industry sub-groups

•  Celebrating success

What Accord members are doing (send us your stories)

•  Recognising the achievers

2005 Environmentally Acceptable Packaging Awards
    (entries close 31 May 2005 - got yours in yet?)

•  Information about how to use the Accord Logo

Basically, yes you can IF you are an Accord signatory - and you advise us first.

•  Accord powerpoint presentation

A PowerPoint presentation covering the New Zealand Packaging Accord 2004 is now
     available for Accord signatories to use.

•  National news

From the wire (not many this time but issues that are currently on-the-boil)

•  International Issues

What people are thinking about overseas and some recent developments.

THE PACKAGING COUNCIL

Since its inception in 1992, the Packaging Council's role has been to represent the interests of the packaged goods industry on issues pertaining to packaging and packaging waste, irrespective of the type of packaging they deal with. Our role is to ensure that environmental acceptability is kept in perspective allowing all those in the packaged goods industry to operate realistically and without draconian restrictions.

The Packaging Council of New Zealand is the official body recognised by Central Government to put into place, monitor and report annually on industry progress against Accord 2004 objectives.

The gain the greatest effect the Council looks to all players in the commercial sector to buy into the Accord and support the work of the Council through membership

For further information re the Accord or membership please contact John Webber or Deb Statham – j.webber@packaging.org.nz or d.statham@packaging.org.nz

The Council is staffed by three full, and one part-time personnel with support from experts and specialists as required.

The Council offices are situated at:
Unit K – 175 Harris Road
(directly behind the BNZ Bank)
East Tamaki

Phone: 09 271 4044
Facsimile: 09 271 4041
Email: pac.nz@packaging.org.nz
Website: www.packaging.org.nz

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THE ACCORD

The New Zealand Packaging Accord 2004 is a partnership between Central Government (represented by the Ministry for the Environment) and the Packaged Goods Industry (represented by the Packaging Council of New Zealand) with endorsement from Local Government New Zealand and the recycling industry through RONZ (Recycling Operators of New Zealand) and was signed in August 2004.

Aimed to significantly contribute to ensuring sustainable packaging thus avoiding the necessity for legislation. The Accord is a huge undertaking that has certainly surpassed our expectations in terms of the amount of interest and coordination required.

In addition to the nine sector groups we already have a further five sub-groups running and more expected to begin work during year one. As you can imagine although the specialist materials areas of all of these groups are wide ranging, there are many areas of common interest. Our challenge is to co-ordinate and communicates within and between the groups so that the understanding and efforts of all are directed to the common goal. Co-ordination and communication are high priorities as it is only by working together, learning and sharing as we go, that the Accord targets will be met by the deadline of 2008.

The Accord document and nine Sector Action Plans can be viewed on www.packaging.org.nz

Many of our organisations also have interests in two or more sectors so the time and resource commitment is often proving very high. We appreciate the costs to business and are actively working on ways to keep this load to a minimum particularly through the communication and co-ordination programme.

A significant challenge for those involved in the Accord is that they must sometimes work in concert with competitors to achieve the common goal. We have been very impressed with the way some of our organisations have shown a good-humoured willingness to engage in common activities and projects with competing organisations for the good of the whole industry.

A major feature of the Accord is its emphasis on gathering the information necessary to determine what the present waste situation is, as well as develop and define ways to monitor the waste streams measuring progress as we go. Indeed the first year of the journey is dedicated to benchmarking. To that end the sectors and their cross-sector groups are currently preparing their first annual reports, which will be collated for each of the nine sectors. The report is due to be presented to the Minister, The Honourable Marion Hobbs and the President of Local Government New Zealand by September 05.

GOVERNING BOARD of the New Zealand Packaging Accord

Prior to the signing of the New Zealand Packaging Accord 2004 the structure of its administration had been established with the overall responsibility resting with a Governing Board representing the four principal parties for an integrated approach to dealing with packaging waste.

The Governing Board consists of eight members. Five appointed by the Packaging Council of New Zealand to represent the packaged goods industry. These representatives are not necessarily from the Executive Committee of the Packaging Council but have been chosen on the basis of those most suitable to represent the commercial sector.

The other three parties represent Central Government, Local Government and the recycling industry through the Recycling Operators of New Zealand (RONZ).

The Governing Board is expected to meet no less than four times a year but in year one meetings have been held as required.

The Governing Board oversees the overall Accord process. It is developing the appropriate mechanisms to ensure transparency and responsibility and these items have been priorities at the Governing Board’s first three meetings.

The Board has worked on the Deed, Budgets, Accord Objectives and more recently the Glass recycling issue reported later in this newsletter.

For more information – please go to www.packaging.org.nz or email Deb (d.statham@packaging.org.nz)

The ACCORD SECRETARIAT

This service is provided by the Packaging Council of New Zealand to the Accord Governing Board but is independent and separate from the Council’s other functions. The Secretariat’s role is one of a neutral service provider reporting directly to the Governing Board.

ACCORD TARGETS

Each sector is expected to reach and hopefully exceed a recovery target by 2008.
Glass 55%, Aluminium 65%, Paper 70%, Plastic 23%, Steel 43%, Brand Owners & Retailers 20% reduction on the use of plastic shopping bags. Progress on targets is reported annually.

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PROGRESS SO FAR

Eight months into the Accord a meeting of the original Sector Leaders and Writers of the Accord was held in Auckland to discuss progress towards recovery targets. This meeting also provided opportunity to review sector progress and map the next four months to the first reporting point and plan how we are to get to our deadline.

This meeting highlighted the need for communication across the groups. This newsletter will bridge some of that gap and there are other initiatives in hand to ensure everyone is informed.

The links below are notes taken from the minutes of the meeting:

Packaging Council of New Zealand / Accord Secretariat
John Webber j.webber@packaging.org.nz

Overall the progress for the six industry sectors PAC.NZ is responsible for is very positive with a high degree of activity in some areas for instance beverage plastics. John reported that the areas of general merchandise and fast food are being addressed at present.

Governing Board
Trevor Johnston trevor.johnston@thewarehouse.co.nz

Trevor reported that the Board has met four times since November 04 and is developing the appropriate mechanisms to ensure transparency and responsibility. He reiterated the Board's role was to oversee overall Accord progress. The glass issue has required a lot of attention over the period.

National Communications Plan
Lyn Mayes lyn@packaging.org.nz

The website is currently being revamped. A newsletter is in preparation detailing progress to date as well as current issues and information of interest. Lyn will be liaising with communication people from Accord member organisations to ensure synergies and co-ordinate communication.

Central Government represented by the Ministry for the Environment
Josh Gluckman josh.gluckman@mfe.govt.nz

Central Government and Local Government are working together on a Solid Waste Analysis protocol (SWAP) to measure and analyse waste to landfill (http://www.mfe.govt.nz/issues/waste/waste-data/swap-baseline.html). A number of Government agencies are now participating in the Govt 3 Environmental programme (www.mfe.govt.nz/issues/sustainable-industry/govt3/index.html). The www.reducerubbish.govt.nz website also continues to be popular. The Ministry for the Environment is leading by example having achieved a huge reduction in waste to landfill from its own operations.

Local Government New Zealand
Presentation given on behalf of LGNZ by Josh Gluckman (MfE)
Report writer - Viv Heslop - viv@vivacity.co.nz

Since the Accord was signed in August 2004 Local Government New Zealand has represented the sector on the Packaging Accord Governing Board.  They have also been active within a local government reference group to determine how they will work on the actions set out in the Accord and who will represent Local Government New Zealand on the range of working parties being established.

Local Government New Zealand is represented on the Environmental Beverage Action Group and is working with this cross-sectoral group on ways to increase the amount of public place and events recycling.

Issues of particular note have been:

  • Participation in the negotiations on the glass pricing issue.
  • Development of the Solid Waste Analysis Protocol (SWAP) methodology in partnership with the Ministry for the Environment.
  • Working towards the establishment of a kerbside contracts working party to try and develop some best practice for kerbside recycling.
  • Working with the Ministry for the Environment on a survey of local government to determine current recycling initiatives.  This information will be useful as a benchmark of local government activity.

Over the next few months work will continue on communicating the Accord objectives throughout the local government sector.

RONZ (Recycling Operators of New Zealand )
Bruce Middleton bruce@wastenot.co.nz
Melissa Arseneault mel@ronz.org.nz

RONZ has implemented a major project designed to improve packaging data and recycling information. The project aims to develop a mechanism to gather and disseminate reliable data on recycling across the nation. A secondary objective is to work on development of a recyclability index to provide a nationally-recognised way to assess factors relating to the recyclability of a product. RONZ is working with cross-sector groups such as EBAG and the Grocery / Retail / Gen Merchandise working party to provide information and liaison from a recycling perspective. RONZ are pro-actively communicating Accord objectives through their own industry and externally as well as being heavily involved in seeking solutions to the glass issue.

Brandowners & Retailers
Barry Hellberg bhellberg@retail.org.nz
Brenda Cutress admin@fgc.org.nz

The retail sector is working on increasing awareness of the Accord amongst retailers. A working party of Grocery Industry Council (GIC) members, New Zealand Retailers Assn and The Warehouse has been formed and has commenced work on the collection of mass balance data for the sector. All three supermarket chains are undertaking plastic bag reduction programmes. Some retailers such as The Warehouse are actively addressing both secondary and tertiary wastes. The Warehouse has found markets for all its recycled materials. They have improved the ratio of bags to checked through products and are significantly increasing the amount of recycled content in their new plastic bags. The New Zealand Food and Grocery Council is monitoring the amount of waste that is generated through shipping damage. There is concern that reductions in packaging can result in product damage. The sector called for consideration of the causes of waste to be considered in outer packaging decision-making. It was also noted that demographics and consumer concern about health and safety issues were likely to have a significant impact on the amount of packaging used in future. The Accord parties are monitoring these important issues.

Plastics
Paul Collins
Nikki Withington for Carolyn Cox carolyn@plastics.org.nz

The overall consumption of plastics per capita has reduced some 20% over the last five years. Significant gains have been made by design improvements such as "light weighting". For the reasons covered by the Brand Owners report, the flexible plastic food market is increasing dramatically and now accounts for around 40% of plastics. The beverage industry has formed a cross-sectoral group - the Environmental Beverage Action Group (EBAG). This group is actively working to ensure all plastic beverage containers sold are recyclable. They are liasing with RONZ to ensure that recyclability is communicated to recovery operators. An area of primary concern is the provision of facilities for recycling in public areas and at major public events. Group facilitator for EBAG is Bron Bartley (bron@packaging.org.nz). Plastics NZ are working on their annual plastics survey - Nikki Withington is working on a plastics end-of-life options report. Plastics NZ are running best practice seminars for environmentally appropriate packaging design in Auckland and Christchurch.

Paper
Bill Berry bill@interpac.co.nz or ashley@printnz.co.nz

NZ Paperboard Packaging is improving recyclability and reports that recycling targets have been exceeded. They estimate that 120,000 tonnes of recycled paper are processed in New Zealand while 80,000 tonnes are exported. Paper mass balance data shows a continued increase in recovered materials. The paper sector is working with Ministry for the Environment on an SMF project, which has completed a comprehensive report to benchmark current industry practice and developed a sector Code of Practice. In addition they have commenced in-depth projects; to identify and summarise consumer patterns, and identified paper based packaging fibre flow by region, industry and origin. The Paper Sector also reported extensive industry consultation and communication about the Accord with its members and externally.

Steel
Bruce Gledhill bgledhill@xtra.co.nz

Mass balance data is being gathered and the system for analysis improved. A web-based survey questionnaire is in preparation. Bruce noted that talking to customers about recyclability of steel packaging is now a KPI for some sales people in the industry. The Steel sector is focusing on communication with local bodies and are aiming for a consistent approach to steel recycling across the country. The steel sector are endeavouring to make recyclability easier by facilitating provision of balers and magnets available to recyclers. The Steel Can Association's first newsletter TIN TALK is about to hit desks!

Aluminium
John Webber for Anthony Kalsbeek Anthony.Kalsbeek@Amcor.com.au

Aluminium is not reprocessed in New Zealand - all recycled aluminium is exported. The focus for this sector is on energy and materials reduction as well as lowering water usage.

Glass
John Webber j.webber@packaging.org.nz

A report has been prepared on the glass issues. This has been presented to key players in the glass sector and is currently under discussion. It is hoped that a common understanding and resolution could be reached during May. This issue has been the subject of press releases by the Accord Governing Board and Local Government NZ. For copies of the latest press releases from the Governing Board / LGNZ email Deb Statham d.statham@packaging.org.nz

UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE

As of 26 May most major enterprises involved in the importing of glass have agreed on a voluntary levy to support a programme to address the reductions in the prices paid for waste glass. The levy is to apply for a six month period during which time active programmes will be developed to provide long term resolutions to the glass issue and provide specific mechanisms for the support of sustainable collection programmes. The next step is the refining of the implementation of the levy to accommodate the various commercial operations of those contributing. The fact that an agreement has been reached assist across a broad range of commercial operations is a clear example of the Accord process at work.

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CELEBRATING SUCCESS

WHAT SOME OF OUR MEMBERS ARE DOING TO MEET THEIR ACCORD OBLIGATION

The Environmental Beverage Action group (EBAG) is encouraging members to share the progress they are making on reducing process waste, ensuring recyclability of products as well as increasing recycling from their own plants (see links below).

The next issue of ACCORDing to Packaging will have information about how other members of EBAG have reduced waste, implemented Environmental Management Systems and won awards for their efforts.

We will also have stories from the other sectors. Please tell us what you are doing so we can tell the world. We are actively getting the news out to the media - so make sure your organisation is recognised for your waste minimisation activities. Contact Deb Statham - d.statham@packaging.org.nz

DB Breweries and Visy PET Technologies

DB Breweries and Visy PET Technologies have both reduced waste emanating from their operations to the point where previously essential waste compaction plants are redundant. You can read how they did it in the current issue of NZ Packaging News.

Fonterra

EBAG member Fonterra, is receiving plaudits for its eco-efficiency programme http://www.zerowaste.co.nz/default,495.sm . A three-month-old partnership between Fonterra, paper and cardboard recyclers FullCircle, and waste services company EnviroWaste has seen Fonterra's Clandeboye site cut the amount of waste it sends to landfill by seventy percent. The partnership won the first Zero Waste National Partnership Award, presented at the recent International Zero Waste Conference held in Kaikoura.

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ENVIRONMENTALLY ACCEPTABLE PACKAGING AWARDS

FINAL CALL FOR ENTRIES - 31 MAY 2005

Entries for this prestigious biennial event are open now to all in the packaged goods industry (this programme is NOT exclusive to Packaging Council members). There are ten categories covering all packaging materials, systems, environmental impact, education/promotion and design. Information and entry forms are available on http://www.packaging.org.nz/awards index.html.

Entries CLOSE ON 31 MAY 2005. Don't miss out - celebrate your environmental progress by checking which categories your organisation can enter for.

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ACCORD LOGO

The Accord logo is now available for member companies of the Packaging Council who have committed to the Accord process and for those parties committed to the Accord through the other signatories namely, central and local government and members of the Recycling Operators of New Zealand.

The logo has legal copy write and trademarks have been applied for paper, plastic, glass, metal and wood.

Use by parties other than those nominated above would constitute a breach of copyright.

If you would like to uplift the logo please apply in writing to the Accord Secretariat - Attention Deb Statham - C/- Packaging Council of New Zealand (Inc) - PO Box 58899 - Greenmount or email d.statham@packaging.org.nz

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ACCORD POWERPOINT PRESENTATION

GENERIC

A 55 slide PowerPoint presentation covering the New Zealand Packaging Accord 2004, the history, what is expected, sector activity, targets etc is now available for Accord signatories to use. Please contact Deb Statham on 09 271 4044 or email d.statham@packaging.org.nz.

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NEW ZEALAND NEWS

Stories we are Following

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INTERNATIONAL ISSUES

  • Recycling report welcomed by packaging sector
    02/03/2005 - A new UK study that suggests there are significant economic benefits in including metal cans in kerbside collection schemes has been roundly welcomed by the metal packaging industry, writes Anthony Fletcher http://www.packwire.com/news/ng.asp?id=58430
  • Tesco launches first fully automated recycling machine
    4/12/2004 - UK supermarket Tesco has launched the country's first fully automated recycling machine designed to encourage customers to recycle more packaging waste. The machine takes the hassle out of recycling by automatically sorting the plastic, metal and glass, using the latest technology to process up to 80 items per minute. http://www.foodproductiondaily.com/news/ng.asp?id=56777

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REPRESENTING MANUFACTURERS, FILLERS, BRAND OWNERS, WHOLESALERS,
RETAILERS & CONSUMERS OF PACKAGING
Unit K, 175 Harris Road, Botany Downs, Auckland: PO Box 58899, Greenmount
PHONE 09 271 4044, FAX 09 271 4041, EMAIL pac.nz@packaging.org.nz, WEB www.packaging.org.nz