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Every business has a part to play in safeguarding our environment – even SMEs. With 80% of supermarket goods set to feature the Australasian Recycling Label (ARL) by the end of 2023 under the Federal Government’s National Plastic Plan, it’s worth understanding how your business can make a stand for responsible packaging.
In our SmartCompany webinar with the Australian Packaging Covenant Organisation (APCO), host David Adams explores the power of the ARL, the role of SMEs in sustainable packaging, consumer demands in recycling and the businesses making the change. Joining Adams is Bonnie Marshall, Policy Officer, National Retail Association; Nerida Kelton, Executive Director, Australian Institute of Packaging; and Alison Appleby, Engagement and Capability Manager, APCO.
A uniform labelling scheme
For businesses, displaying the ARL is an easy way to inform consumers on how to dispose of their packaging correctly.
The push to make the ARL a standard addition to packaging, says Alison Appleby, will make things even more streamlined and avoid the confusion of other schemes. “The chasing arrow symbol, or the Möbius loop with the number inside of it…you see that on your bottle and you think, ‘Oh, it’s recyclable,’” Appleby says. “But actually that symbol isn’t meant for consumers, it’s meant for industry.”
Without the consistency of one easily-understood scheme, there’s plenty of potential for mistakes. “If we can help the system and ensure that the packaging that we are putting in our recycling bins is in fact recyclable – and that’s what the ARL tells us – it means that we’re going to have a cleaner system,” Appleby says.
Boosting the bottom line
Businesses, says Bonnie Marshall, will find plenty of incentives to include the ARL on their packaging. “Often you find when you move to more sustainable packaging, there’s often a huge cost-benefit to business,” Marshall says. “The more customers become aware of the ARL, the more likely they are to look for products with the ARL.”
The idea that businesses stand to benefit from applying the ARL on-pack is borne out in the research.
“About 75% of Australians have indicated that they agree that the ARL is a great idea, and they want to see it on all packaging,” says Appleby. “And about half of participants in the survey from the ARL Consumer Insights Report said that the ARL would positively influence their purchasing behaviours.”
Advice for SMEs
Nerida Kelton understands that, for smaller businesses, planning for packaging change can be daunting. “The reality is that we don’t expect SMEs to have technical packaging experts in their teams,” says Kelton. “So for a small-to-medium-sized business, understanding the materials, specifications, dimensions, inks and adhesives is very overwhelming.”
For SMEs listening in, the panel offered plenty of advice for how to get started with both the ARL and sustainable packaging in general.
One simple place to start is the ARL Marketplace. “It’s not just about the ARL, it’s also about how to create sustainable packaging and make decisions that will ensure that your packaging is sustainable,” says Appleby. “The intention is that in the longer term, it will be a platform where small businesses can go online and find products or packaging that they can apply the ARL on-pack.”
Kelton also gave some suggestions based on the Sustainable Packaging Guidelines (the SPGs). “You would be amazed at how many SMEs sit with the Principles and they think, ‘Well, I could do that in my warehouse, I could change my pallet wrap. I could look at eliminating PVC in one of my lines. Or I could get rid of polystyrene.” These are all steps to lower your environmental impact. And as Bonnie said, “this is about low-hanging fruit. The first step is evaluating your packaging and if you get the ARL on at least one of your products, it’s a great start.”
Small changes, big impact
This idea of low-hanging fruit is a constant theme and, for SMEs looking to make effective and easy improvements to their packaging, the outlook is good. Nerida Kelton gave the example of milk company Little Big Dairy and one easy switch that made a big difference. “That was simply changing the cap colour on their milk bottle,” Kelton says. “If you take away that colour, and you go back to clear, then you have a quality feed stock with value to put back into the recycling stream.”
Keen to learn more about the SPGs? Visit this link to find out how it can help your business.
The ARL Marketplace is home to a range of free educational resources, including a new online training course developed by the Australian Institute of Packaging (AIP), designed to help small businesses make the switch to more sustainable packaging options.
Visit www.arlmarketplace.org.au or join the weekly ARL sessions with the AIP and National Retail Association to get started.
The SME ARL Campaign is a new program helping small businesses to adopt the Australasian Recycling Label on their packaging. It features free educational tools, events and resources to help SMEs make the switch to sustainable packaging. The campaign was developed by a partnership of leading industry bodies, including the Australian Packaging Covenant Organisation, the Australian Institute of Packaging, the National Retail Association and the Australian Food and Grocery Council.
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