Major supermarket giants Woolworths and Coles are addressing their ambitious goal of combating plastic waste with a vision of being able to recycle, reuse, or compost all plastic packaging by 2025. is.
The two supermarket groups have joined 60 groups, including ALDI and Nestlé, throughout the supply chain that have signed the Australia, New Zealand and Pacific Islands Plastics Agreement (ANZPAC).
Launched on Tuesday, ANZPAC targets unnecessary and problematic plastic packages, increases package collection and recycling by 25%, and is set to reach 25% recycling packages across the region over the next four years. ..
Brooke Donnelly, CEO of the Australian Packaging Covenant Organization, ANZPAC’s leading organization, said: Said. “To effectively tackle plastic waste, we need to find a solution that is not constrained by borders or old ideas.”
“Through the plastics agreement model, we will integrate the entire plastic supply chain across the Oceania region and work with global partners through the plastics agreement network to develop solutions that will bring about realistic and concrete changes in regional plastics issues. Donnelly said.
In its commitment to the contract, Coles stated that by July 1, 2021, all disposable plastic tableware would be removed from the shelves.
We will also participate in research considering returning soft plastics such as bread bags and biscuit wrapping paper to oil to create new soft food packaging.
“As one of Australia’s largest retailers, Kohl’s understands the importance of working together to find a more sustainable future for plastic packaging,” said Kohl’s CEO Commercial and Express. Greg Davis said..
Adrian Karen, head of sustainability at Woolworths, said the deal provided the first opportunity for the industry as a whole to work together on this issue.
“In recent years we have removed thousands of tonnes of plastic from packages and stores, but we know there’s still a lot to do and we can’t do it alone,” Karen told AAP. It was.
According to ANZPAC, if nothing is done, the amount of plastic on the market will double by 2040.
In 2018, both supermarkets stopped offering disposable plastic bags. However, alternatives raised questions about how effective the ban was in reducing the use of plastics.
Sustainability expert Jeff Binder said Yahoo News Australia believed that supermarkets didn’t really change the way people shop.
“It’s just a supermarket that responded to the pressure to stop distributing free plastic bags, and they responded to that pressure,” he said.
“They just draw the line with the least resistance. They don’t ponder this issue. They are dealing with customers and this issue imposes a small tax on heavier plastic bags. “It’s okay, that’s okay,” he said, looking at other controlled jurisdictions.
Binders are billions of big supermarkets [single-use] Even after the bags were distributed, the question remained as to what happened to the sales of other plastic bags.
“I’m sure some people will bring their bags to the grocery store when they go shopping, but does that mean that the use of plastic bags has decreased? Probably not,” he said.