Environment
PACKAGING
Why is this material to our business?
We have more than 2,000 Private Label products just in our supermarkets and many more in our other retail brands. As a brand owner, we can influence the choice and efficiency of consumer packaging used in our Private Label range. Consumer packaging is also an important issue to our customers, as evidenced by the volume of inquiries we receive about packaging reduction and recyclability.
Woolworths Limited is a signatory to the National Packaging Covenant, an industry agreement covering the whole of the packaging supply chain with the aim to reduce packaging waste. The National Packaging Covenant reported that the overall recycling rate of packaging was 57% in 2008, with improvement still required to achieve the 2010 target of 65%.
What is our commitment?
In our Sustainability Strategy 2007-2015 we set the following commitments and targets:
- Establish a supplier forum to work together on more sustainable packaging
- Establish more comprehensive baseline data for packaging of Private Label products, including information on materials consumption, local/ imported origin, recycled content and recyclability
- Review Private Label procurement policy and supplier guidelines to incorporate:
- Standardised reporting and data collection
- Compliance with the Environmental Code of Practice for Packaging (ECOPP)
- Package labelling in line with ISO 14021 Standard for environmental claims
- Supplier training to assist them in meeting policy requirements
- Conduct an audit of compliance with the ECOPP and ISO 14021 for Private Label products
- Trial the use of The Packaging Impact Quick Evaluation Tool (PIQET), a packaging life cycle assessment tool, for Private Label products
- Report annually to the National Packaging Covenant and Woolworths Corporate Responsibility Report
- Implement revised Private Label procurement policy and supplier guidelines by 2008
- Provide training to 50 suppliers by 2008
- Use PIQET to evaluate 20 Private Label products by 2010
- Continue to replace waxed cardboard and foam boxes with reusable plastic crates where possible, with a targeted increase of 1.7 million to 3.4 million crates.
How are we performing?
Two supplier forums were held in 2009, one providing training on PIQET and the other involving review and feedback of Woolworths' Sustainable Packaging Guidelines.
Our draft Sustainable Packaging Guidelines were issued to our Private Label suppliers and relevant industry groups for review and feedback. The draft guidelines include design strategies for effectiveness, efficiency, reuse, recovery, recycling, safety and communication.
Meanwhile the National Packaging Covenant Council has issued its draft Sustainable Packaging Guidelines for the broader industry which are expected to be finalised at the end of 2009.
Woolworths has taken a strategic decision to finalise its guidelines only once the National Packaging Covenant has formalised and made its own guidelines public. This is to ensure consistency - that both sets of guidelines support the same objectives and that we avoid potential conflicts that could create problems for packaging suppliers.
The independent labelling audit of all Private Label packaging assessed compliance with the ISO 14021 standard for environmental labelling.
Of the 331 non-conformances identified in 694 Private Label products, 57% of the 21 high priority, 66% of the 50 medium priority and 40% of the 260 low priority actions have been addressed.
The PIQET was used to compare polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) clamshell packaging, and polystyrene, PET and polypropylene (PP) meat trays. The packaging life cycle assessment revealed that the polypropylene tray has the lowest environmental impact and is recyclable. However it also showed that a film layer must be applied to the inner surface of the tray to enable heat sealing to ensure the shelf life of the meat in it is not compromised.
From an environmental perspective, protecting the shelf life of meat products is highly important because meat has a relatively high water and carbon footprint. However, initial evaluation of the combined polypropylene tray and film option shows that it may be prohibitively expensive.
Progress on packaging targets, commitments and actions has been reported in the National Packaging Covenant annual reports available on www.packagingcovenant.org.au.