The food and grocery manufacturing sector pays wages and salaries of $13.56 billion.
The industry’s workforce accounts for about 3 per cent of the population.
The food and grocery manufacturing industry consists of 30,104 businesses.
The industry provides around 24 million nutritious, affordable meals to Australians every day.
312,000 Australians are employed in the food, beverage and manufacturing industries, including half in rural and regional areas.
Australia’s $108 billion food and grocery manufacturing industry is the nation’s largest manufacturing sector.
Industry spends on average 0.5 per cent of turn-over on R&D – about $368 million a year.

Projects & Priorities

Packaging & Recycling

Packaging waste in Australia is regulated through the Australian Packaging Covenant which provides a co-regulatory framework for the effective management of used packaging based on the principles of shared responsibility and product stewardship.

All of our members are signatories to the Australian Packaging Covenant (APC).

Roughly four million tonnes of packaging are used in Australia each year. Of this, 57 per cent is recycled annually¹.

Did you know…

It takes around 84 per cent less energy to recycle a plastic bottle than to make one from raw materials²
The energy saved from recycling one glass bottle saves enough energy to power a 100 watt light bulb for four hours³
By recycling just six aluminium cans you can offset a 25 kilometre train trip, 17 kilometre bus ride or 10 kilometre journey in an average size car⁴

Packaging serves a range of useful purposes, protecting food and other goods on their journey from farm or factory via warehouses and shops until they arrive at consumers’ homes. It carries an increasing amount of information, much of which is required by law and must be easy to open and re-close, tamper-evident and child resistant.

In addition to this commitment, a number of our members are members of one of our forums, the Packaging Stewardship Forum (PSF).The PSF delivers a range of successful programs focused on increasing recycling and reducing litter arising from packaging products. These programs are spear-headed by the PSF’s well known brand, Do the Right Thing.

Sources:
¹_{National Packaging Covenant, 2008 Annual Report - http://www.packagingcovenant.org.au/documents/File/NPCC_2008_Annual_Report_Final.pdf}²_{EcoRecycle Waste Wise Events Toolkit 2004 - http://www.ecorecycle.sustainability.vic.gov.au/resources/documents/WWE_Toolkit_%28Full_Version%29.pdf}³_{Sustainability Victoria - http://www.resourcesmart.vic.gov.au/documents/08003_Fact_File_07.pdf}⁴_{Planet Ark -}_{http://planetark.org/campaigns/alcans.cfm}

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