Flat wine bottle, a circular economy innovation finalist

Victorian foodservice and beverage packaging enterprises are among the finalists in the 2023 Premier’s Sustainability Awards, serving up a diverse range of circular economy innovations right across Victoria.

Now in its 21st year, Victoria’s annual sustainability awards program has six categories, aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals; the blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all, with two winners in each category.

In the Circular Economy Innovation category, Packamama has been nominated as a Community Champion finalist. Packamama is challenging assumptions that wine bottles must be round and made of glass by designing a 100% Australian-produced recycled PET eco-flat wine bottle. Now being used by some of Australia’s leading wine producers, including Accolade Wines and Taylors Wines, the bottles are designed to be 83% lighter than glass ones. Due to their shape, the bottles can be packed more tightly for transportation, which can help to reduce relative emissions per bottle.

Brunswick’s Wholefoods Unwrapped Collective has also been nominated as a Community Champion. Wholefoods Unwrapped Collective has been able to purchase a suite of reusable stainless steel Returnrs, crates and sturdy polycarbonate tubs to fulfil their customers’ orders of fresh wholefoods from suppliers without dependence on energy-intensive and unnecessary packaging.

Among those nominated as Industry Leaders in the Circular Economy Innovation category is Moving Feast Network’s Open Sauce initiative. This collaborative project sees food waste from various sources such as off-cuts, excess produce from farmers and other waste items from kitchens and offices transformed into delicious retail products, both edible and non-perishable, diverting food waste away from landfill.

Also nominated as an Industry Leader finalist in the Circular Economy Innovation category is Werribee South’s Fresh Select and Nutri V with their Zero Waste Farming project. The initiative sees surplus vegetables and vegetable by-products upcycled into value-added foods and ingredients such as nutrient-dense vegetable powders and healthy extruded snacks, enabling Fresh Select, Nutri V and other farmers in the Werribee South growing district to increase crop yields, reduce food waste and environmental impact, and generate new revenue streams.

Matt Genever, Sustainability Victoria’s Interim CEO, said he was inspired by the work being done by the food industry to create a more sustainable future for Victorians.

“These organisations are leading the way in sustainability, and I look forward to recognising their achievements at the awards ceremony in November,” Genever said.

The Circular Economy Innovation category of the 2023 Premier’s Sustainability Awards is sponsored by Melbourne Water.

For further information about all the Premier’s Sustainability Awards finalists, visit https://www.sustainability.vic.gov.au/psa-2023-finalists.

Winners will be announced at an awards ceremony on Thursday, 23 November in Melbourne.