The Australian Food and Grocery Council, Australia’s peak food and grocery manufacturing representative body, has welcomed recognition from the nation’s Environment Ministers that the National Packaging Covenant has played a significant role in increasing consumer packaging recycling rates by 16 per cent over the past three years. AFGC Chief Executive Kate Carnell said it was pleasing to see last week’s meeting of the Environment Protection and Heritage Council acknowledge the success... ...Read more »
Victorian-based Cool Change Natural Spring Water has launched Australia’s first beverage (spring water) packaged in a bottle made from plants, as they seek to “go green” in an industry often criticised for a lack of sustainability. Rather than packaging a drink in PET, a polymer (plastic) derived from crude oil, Cool Change Natural Spring Water bottles are made using Ingeo PLA, derived from annually renewable sources - plants. This new material is derived from plant sugars and requires... ...Read more »
The ACT community should achieve a reduction of 80 per cent in plastic bag use, ACT Environment Minister Simon Corbell said on Friday. Mr Corbell said the ACT would move to instigate a 12-month trial in the first half of next year of a range of measures, including a charge on plastic bags, to reduce plastic bag use. “The 80 per cent target would be consistent with the results achieved in the recent Victorian trial of a plastic bag charge of 10 cents per bag,” he claimed. “One of... ...Read more »
Margy Osmond, CEO of the Australian National Retailers Association, has reported that retailers are keen to participate with government on new plastic bag initiatives following the successful trial of a levy in Victoria a couple of months ago. “We welcome the opportunity to continue and grow our partnership with the Victorian and other state governments to develop a model to further reduce the use of plastic bags,” Mrs Osmond said in response to the Environment Ministers meeting in Adelaide... ...Read more »
Five innovative south-east Queensland-based companies have won 2008 Environmental Protection Agency Sustainable Industries Awards, for outstanding performance in environmental best practice. Queensland’s Sustainability, Climate Change and Innovation Minister Andrew McNamara congratulated ALDI, Consolidated Rutile, Leightons, News Limited and RedFlow at the Awards ceremony held on the Gold Coast last week. “The awards highlight the importance of the Bligh Government’s Toward Q2 vision... ...Read more »
IGA Barraba is tomorrow set to become the first supermarket in New South Wales to place a permanent ban on plastic bags. The store owners, John and Karen Bishton, are encouraging customers to use re-useable bags - which are sold at three for $1. They will also offer re-usable bags on loan. IGA Barraba is the largest retailer in the north western NSW town, and accounts for approximately 85 per cent of plastic bag usage among the small town’s 2000 residents. It is now well on the way to joining... ...Read more »
A rapidly changing climate, increasingly expensive oil, and declining land and river health threaten to undo Victoria’s impressive food productivity and prosperity, according to the Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF). A new report released on Monday by the ACF - Paddock to Plate: Food, Farming & Victoria’s Progress to Sustainability - suggests a re-think on not just the way we produce food, but also the way it is hauled, stored, processed and consumed, if we are to avoid a serious... ...Read more »
Restaurant and Catering Australia (R&CA) announced the launch of the Green Table Australia initiative on Monday night, which will encourage restaurants to reduce their impact on the environment. Restaurants that adhere to the “best practice” suggestions of the program will be awarded with a Green Table logo that they can proudly put on display at their restaurant. The initiative is based on the Green Table scheme successfully set-up in Canada and was officially launched at the Savour... ...Read more »
Peak retail industry body the Australian Retailers Association (ARA) yesterday called on retailers to get involved with environmental debates, including the proposed emissions trading scheme and plastic bag bans. Speaking to an auditorium of over 300 at the Future’s So Bright Green conference, ARA Executive Director Richard Evans encouraged retailers to embrace the opportunity in the challenge to ‘go green’ by engaging with governments. “Whether you agree with the science... ...Read more »
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. has taken the unprecedented next step of hosting a gathering of more than 1,000 leading suppliers, Chinese officials and NGOs in Beijing where they outlined a series of aggressive goals and expectations to build a more environmentally and socially responsible global supply chain. “I firmly believe that a company that cheats on overtime and on the age of its labour, that dumps its scraps and chemicals in our rivers, that does not pay its taxes or honour its contracts —... ...Read more »