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.
AFGC is the leading national organisation representing Australia’s $108 billion food, drink and grocery manufacturing industry.Join AFGCThe industry employs more than 312000 people across Australia including half in rural and regional areas.
Australians have been recycling packaging materials for more than a decade through kerbside collection systems and recycling has increased year on year. In 2009-10, household kerbside recycling services:-
recycled more than 1.1 million tonnes of used packaging;
were provided to 96% of Australian households;
cost less than $1.50 per week for the majority of households;
cost on average $370 per tonne recycled (including the cost of recycling newsprint and office paper). Source: Reports from jurisdictions on the implementation of the Used Packaging Materials NEPM 2009-10, http://www.ephc.gov.au/annual_report
Through the PSF, Australia’s major beverage manufacturers and their packaging suppliers are committed to delivering a pro-active, step change response to reducing the impact of end of life beverage packaging. We want to see more recycling and less litter, and recognize that we need to take strong leadership to make the change happen.
While we remain committed to the Australian Packaging Covenant as the most appropriate policy measure to respond to the issue of packaging waste management, we recognize that within that framework the beverage industry must do more to address community and stakeholder concerns.
In 2010, Federal, State and Territory Environment Ministers conducted an assessment of potential options for national measures, including container deposit legislation, to address resource efficiency, environmental impacts and the reduction of litter from packaging wastes such as beverage containers.
The assessment found that a national container deposit system would be the most expensive option, at a cost of $680 million a year to collect an additional 330,000 tonnes of beverage containers (ie a cost per tonne of $2,040). At a cost of $2,040 a tonne to collect, a national container deposit system would clearly have a signiificant impact on the community.
A range of other alternatives policy measures were also modelled, which could deliver between 500-600,000 tonnes of additional packaging recovery (including beverage containers), at a cost of between $36-42 million a year, significantly less than a national container deposit system and at a cost per tonne of between $13 and $70.
Recycling beverage containers, other packaging and newsprint though household kerbside recycling services has proven to be cost effective and convenient service. At an average cost of $370 per tonne (see above) and collecting a wide range of recyclable materials, the cost of kerbside is less than 1/5th of the cost of a container deposit deposit system!
National investigations are progressing through the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) Standing Council on Environment and Water (former Environment Protection and Heritage Council. In December 2011 the COAG Council released the Packaging Impacts Consultation Regulation Impact Statement (PICRIIS) http://www.ephc.gov.au/product_stewardship/packaging_impacts, which analysed a range of options which could have a positive cost benefit and tangible impact on recycling rates and litter reduction for all packaging, including a number of industry co-regulatory product stewardship approaches and container deposit systems (CDS). The RIS found the cost to the Australian community for a national CDS would between $1.4 billion and $1.8 billion, compared to a range of industry co-regulatory approaches that would deliver similar, if not better outcomes for packaging waste recovery and litter reduction, at a much lower cost.
A new model to deliver better outcomes at lower cost
Instead of costly regulation, we propose an alternative which will deliver better outcomes at much lower cost to the community.
Our product stewardship model is based on a successful scheme that has been operating in New Zealand for the past four years. The New Zealand Glass Packaging Forum's program of work is accredited as a voluntary product stewardship scheme under the New Zealand Waste Minimisation Act (2008) and has recently extended beyond glass recycling issues to address public place recycling. During the past four years of the voluntary scheme, New Zealand glass recycling rates have increased dramatically, from 49% to 66%.
It’s a model which has considerable flexibility, enabling tailored solutions to be developed for differing state/territory, regional and local needs and to address specific barriers that may impact on the achievement of better recycling rates or less litter.
It’s a model that will engage and involve state/territory and local governments, business, non-government organisations and the community in working together to develop and implement real and practical solutions.
It addresses the whole of life of the container, not only guaranteeing return but also reuse.
In 2011, the Federal Government passed the Product Stewardship Act 2011 which aims to establish a national framework to manage the environmental, health and safety impacts of products, in particular those impacts associated with the disposal of products. The Act provides for voluntary, co-regulatory and regulatory product stewardship schemes to be established.
Industry will seek to have a product stewardship scheme accredited under the new Act by jurisdictions and the Federal Government. Examples of the types of industry activities that could be included in a product stewardship scheme include, research and development, materials reprocessing and bin infrastructure, extension of recycling services to businesses, consumer education, the development of new markets for recycled material and/or support to communities to address litter reduction and clean up - with a strong focus on finding solutions in regional and remote areas.
Community Attitudes to the model
In 2009, the PSF commissioned research which surveyed 1400 members of the community Australian wide to better understand community attitudes towards, and support for, container recycling, including CDL, and the community’s reception to an alternative “out and about” or away from home recycling scheme, i.e. without the need to collect and return a deposit. At a 95% confidence level, 68 per cent% of all respondents preferred the away from home recycling scheme. For a copy of the research see: Public Perceptions of Container Deposit Legislation and Alternative Recycling Schemes, UMR Research Pty Ltd, October 2009.
The Economics of Warm Glow
Dr Raul Barreto, Senior Economics Lecturer at the University of Adelaide provides an economist’s perspective on South Australia’s Container Deposit Scheme. See this short video:
Economic Impacts of a National Container Deposit Scheme
A report by economists, ACIL Tasman shows the impact on sales volumes, and jobs in the beverage manufacturing sector should a national container deposit scheme be implemented.
