| 79 nzdairy Some organisations are the unsung heroes of our beautiful country and The Packaging Forum is one of them. The Packaging Forum has a vision that by 2025, all packaging in New Zealand will be reusable, recyclable or compostable. To achieve this, the entire packaging industry needs to work together to ensure the best commercial and sustainable solutions are found. A national member-based organisation, The Packaging Forum’s main reason for being is to provide solutions for its members and the community to increase what is recycled. At a time when too much glass was being collected for recycling, The Glass Packaging Forum was established in 2005, introducing a voluntary levy on glass users to help develop alternative uses for glass. In 2011 Forum’s scope was broadened to include other packaging materials to lead the Governments ‘Love NZ Public Place Recycling’ project ahead of the Rugby World Cup, which was established to place branded recycling bins in and around sports grounds and cities. Following the success of that the Soft Plastics Recycling Scheme was introduced, along with work to increase Litter & Public Place Recycling and to find solutions for Compostable Packaging. Today the Packaging Forum’s 240 members traverse the supply chain and include manufacturers of packaging types, brand owners who fill the packages, through to supermarkets or retailers who sell the products. The Soft Plastic Recycling scheme currently has 160 members. “We’ve worked hard to find New Zealand processors who can turn our members’ soft plastics into useful products, such as fence posts, garden frames and edging and cable covers,” says Soft Plastics Recycling Scheme Manager Lyn Mayes. “Two of these, Future Post and 2nd Life Plastics are great examples of Kiwi ingenuity at work.” The programme takes all soft plastics including: bread bags, frozen food bags, chip bags, pasta and rice bags, confectionery and biscuit wrap, squeeze pouches, shopping bags, toilet paper packaging, sanitary hygiene packaging and courier envelopes. Basically, anything made of soft plastic which can be scrunched into a ball — but it must be clean, empty and dry. More and more brands are now putting the “soft plastic recycle at store” logo on their packaging so their consumers can easily understand what can be recycled. “The Soft Plastics Recycling scheme from collections, baling, and transport through to the end market and processing cost is 100% funded by industry. Members pay voluntary levies which funds the collection service at stores. We partner with social enterprises to collect bags from stores; we bale the soft plastics and transport to businesses like Future Post for processing into posts.” Prior to 2018 there was no capacity to recycle the soft plastics, and it was all being sent off-shore. Now, through the endeavours of the Soft Plastics Recycling Scheme and businesses like Future Post, there is capacity to process in excess of 1000 tonnes each year. Looking towards a bright, clean future, Lyn says there are new opportunities for processing soft plastics within New Zealand. “Constraint of onshore processing is changing, bringing confidence that we can collect and recycle. Process capacity means we can focus on collection growth and the Scheme is now in a collection growth phase. New and emerging technologies are showing real potential for a truly circular plastics economy.” Towards a better future
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