Arnott's zeros in on sustainable packaging

Arnott’s is on track to meet the Australian Packaging Covenant’s (APCO) 2025 National Packaging Targets by 2023, two years ahead of schedule. The business’s sustainable packaging advancements have been recognised by APCO, featuring as a finalist, and one of only a handful of local food manufacturers in the running to win the organisation’s Industry Sector Award.

Arnott’s progress in the area of sustainable packaging is being driven by many initiatives, such as:

• enhanced recyclability of its soft plastic packaging through the transition to mono-material wrappers;
• reduction in cardboard usage through a carton grammage downgauge initiative;
• final stage of trials to validate the use of R-PET in bottles and trays;
• greater education and awareness around recyclability through the widespread adoption of the Australasian Recycling Label.

Most recently, Arnott’s has implemented a structural innovation to its portfolio of cardboard boxed products — resulting in a 500-tonne material reduction across 95 individual products each year, including Shapes, Cruskits and Vita-Weat.

The packaging change, which is a collaboration between Arnott’s and supplier Opal, will make boxes 10% lighter, retaining their structural integrity, while using less cardboard.

R&D Packaging Director Alberto Peixeiro said the new box structure, to be rolled out across some of its savoury and sweet products, will be unnoticeable to consumers but will reduce the amount of packaging used annually and save on important resources like energy and water.

“We’ve long committed to using cardboard packaging sourced from 100% recycled fibre and ensuring that it is also 100% recyclable — we are now able to turn our attention to our ‘reduce’ ambition, which is to use less material when we package our products,” Peixeiro said.

“Innovative structural changes when applied at scale can help to dramatically reduce the amount of material used by the industry, and is an important part of the greater sustainability equation we are working to solve.”

Earlier this year, Arnott’s committed to transition its soft plastic packaging from multi- to mono-layer material by the end of 2023. This project remains on track, with 85% of Arnott’s soft plastic wrappers currently made using recyclable mono-material, with plans to transition the remaining 15% in the coming 12 months.

Adoption of the Australasian Recycling Label (ARL) across the Arnott’s portfolio will hit 80% by the end of 2022 and is expected to reach 100% by the end of 2023, ahead of the original 2025 target.

“As consumers become more attuned to the need to recycle, we recognise the vital role that the ARL plays in eliminating confusion at the point of disposal,” Peixeiro said.

Arnott’s has also recently become a member of the New Zealand Soft Plastic Recycling Scheme, an organisation responsible for co-ordinating soft plastic recycling in New Zealand.