The Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s Plastics Pact Network is pleased to welcome the ANZPAC Plastics Pact, which includes Australia, New Zealand, and the Pacific Island nations.
Led by the Australian Packaging Covenant Organisation (APCO), the ANZPAC Plastics Pact brings together 60 businesses, governments and NGOs from across the plastics value chain and throughout the region, towards a circular economycircular economyA systems solution framework that tackles global challenges like climate change, biodiversity loss, waste, and pollution. It is based on three principles, driven by design: eliminate waste and pollution, circulate products and materials (at their highest value), and regenerate nature. for plastic, in which it never becomes waste or pollution. APCO has worked closely with the Ellen MacArthur Foundation and WRAP UK, who brought expertise to the development process and support when consulting with local stakeholders.
The ANZPAC Plastics Pact joins 10 other Plastics Pacts in Africa, Europe, and North and South America, as the second regional Plastics Pact of the Foundation’s global Plastics Pact Network, a unique platform to exchange learnings and best practices across countries and regions, to accelerate the transition to a circular economy for plastic.
ANZPAC Plastics Pact members will work towards a set of ambitious 2025 targets:
Eliminate unnecessary and problematic plastic packaging through redesign, innovation and alternative (reusereuseThe repeated use of a product or component for its intended purpose without significant modification.) delivery models
100% of plastic packaging to be reusable, recyclable or compostable packaging by 2025
Increase plastic packaging collected and effectively recycled by 25% for each geography within the ANZPAC region
Average of 25% recycled content in plastic packaging across the region
Progress towards these targets will be reported publicly each year.
Following the launch, ANZPAC members will begin developing the roadmap towards achieving its 2025 targets. The ANZPAC Plastics Pact invites stakeholders from across the value chain and the region to join them, to work together and tackle plastic waste and pollution at its source in the region.
Sonja Wegge, Plastics Pact Network Programme Manager at the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, said:
“We welcome the announcement of the ANZPAC Plastics Pact, the first in the Pacific region to join the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s global Plastics Pact Network. We are looking forward to supporting government and industry in Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Island Nations in driving real change towards a circular economy for plastic across the region, by eliminating problematic and unnecessary plastic items, innovating to ensure that the plastics needed are reusable, recyclable, or compostable, and circulating the plastic items used to keep them in the economy and out of the environment. Together we can create a world without plastic waste or pollution.”
Brooke Donnelly, CEO of the Australian Packaging Covenant Organisation (ANZPAC lead organisation) said:
“On behalf of the ANZPAC team, and our passionate community of founding Members, it is my pleasure to officially launch the ANZPAC Plastics Pact for the Oceania region. As well as a growing problem, plastic is also fundamentally an international one. To tackle plastic waste effectively we need to find solutions that aren’t constrained by national borders or old ways of thinking. Through the ANZPAC model, we will bring together the complete plastic supply chain across the entire Oceania region, and working with our global partners through the Plastics Pact network, develop solutions that deliver real and tangible change to the plastic problem for our region. Congratulations to all of our founding Members on their genuine commitment to achieving a circular economy for plastics and their willingness to break down traditional barriers between each other to scale truly innovative solutions”.
