New Australasian Recycling Label launched to support ambitious 2025 packaging targets

SEPARATING recyclables from rubbish will be easier thanks to a new label launched by the government today.

SHOPPERS will find it easier to sort their recycling thanks to a new label launched today.

The Australasian Recycling Label shows exactly what parts of the packaging are recyclable and what needs to be thrown into landfill.

There’s long been confusion around what people can recycle especially if the packaging is made up of many different components.

For example, below is the label you might find on a box of chocolates.

Australasian Recycling Label. Source: Planet Ark.

The image shows that the box is recyclable (it’s cardboard) and can be put in the kerbside collection, the tray (made of plastic) might be recyclable depending on your individual council, and the wrap is not recyclable so should be placed in the rubbish bin.

When faced with the conditionally recyclable symbol and the instruction to “check locally”, you can go to RecyclingNearYou.com.au to check your council’s policy.

More than 50 Australian businesses have committed to the program including Australia Post, Blackmores, Nestlé, Officeworks, Unilever and Woolworths.

The label is part of efforts to improve meet Australia’s 2025 target to ensure 100 per cent of all packaging is recyclable, reusable or compostable.

The targets also aims to recycle or compost 70 per cent of Australia’s plastic packaging by 2025 and to ensure new packaging includes an average of 30 per cent recycled content.

Environment Minister Melissa Price launched the label at the Australian Packaging Covenant Organisation’s Towards 2025 event in Melbourne today.

Ms Price said it would remove confusion and reduce waste.

“(It) provides people with easy to understand recycling information when they need it most, in those few seconds when they are deciding what bin the package goes in,” she said.

Australia’s recycling industry was thrown into crisis after China introduced tough new standards that meant most waste from Australia would no longer be accepted.

Australia produces 64 million tonnes of waste a year and recycles 35 million tonnes, with four million tonnes exported overseas, 1.3 million tonnes of which went to China.

A Chinese labourer sorting out plastic bottles for recycling in Dong Xiao Kou village, on the outskirts of Beijing. Picture: Fred Dufour/AFP

In order to achieve the 2025 recycling outcomes, upgrades to waste sorting and recovery and support for developing recycling markets will be required.

A review of Australia’s National Waste Policy is currently underway and will look at the entire supply chain from creation through use, collection, recovery and recycling of packaging waste.

This morning @Melissa4Durack joined business leaders, industry representatives and Planet Ark to launch the #AustralasianRecyclingLabel with @APCovenant.

The label provides easy to understand recycling information when you need it most. Find out more at https://t.co/rixg5iFucj pic.twitter.com/LfSqVzq4m0

— Planet Ark (@PlanetArk) September 26, 2018