AUSTRALIA | Fonterra has recently signed on to Australia's Big Bag Recovery programme.
The Big Bag Recovery Programme has given large industrial plastic bags new life by turning them into products made from 100 percent recycled content through its sister company, Circular Communities Australia.
These products include school and community chairs and water evaporation floating covers. The programme specifically targeted woven polypropylene and low-density polyethylene bags, which until now have not had a nationally endorsed or structured pathway to recycling and often end up in landfills.
Under the programme, Fonterra’s bulk ingredients customers can return these bags to Big Bag Recovery for recycling.
With 14,000 of the one-tonne bulk bags distributed annually, if every bag is recycled, Fonterra and its customers could reduce up to 57,407 kg of CO2e emissions annually, which is comparable to taking 12,480 cars off the road for a year.
Fonterra Oceania GM of Sustainability, Rosie Cotter, said Fonterra’s participation in Australia's Big Bag Recovery programme is a vital step in meeting its sustainability goals.
“As well as helping to reduce emissions, recycling these bags can divert around 40 tonnes of reusable plastic into the circular economy each year, unlocking a valuable resource,” said Cotter.
“In addition to reducing the impact of our industrial packaging through this programme, we also have around 30 sustainable packaging projects underway in Australia, earmarked to improve the recyclability of approximately 250 products on supermarket shelves.”
The collaboration with Big Bag Recovery was the latest in a range of packaging partnerships for Fonterra in Australia, where it has been one of the founding supporters of the National Plastics Recycling Scheme and a member of the Australian Packaging Covenant Organisation (APCO).
