APCO’s new 2030 Strategic Plan provides economic incentives for material circularity and to establish mechanisms for achieving national packaging targets.
The Australian Packaging Covenant Organisation (APCO) has unveiled its 2030 Strategic Plan, challenging the status quo to achieve ambitious national packaging goals.
For the first time in Australia, the strategy outlines a path for the industry to take on increased responsibility for enhancing recycling efforts to meet national targets.
“We know that our members have made great strides in improving the recyclability of packaging and genuinely want to see our recycling rates improve,” said APCO’s CEO, Chris Foley.
“But the analysis is clear: we need to take a more hands-on approach to recycling if we’re going to see the results that the community expects.”
The plan proposes a membership fee structure designed to promote packaging material circularity and grant brands the social license to operate in Australia.
After analysis and member consultations, APCO’s fees will be adjusted from FY27 to reflect the types and quantities of packaging brands introduce to the market, with higher fees for materials that are more challenging to recover, recycle, or need to be disposed.
It’s hoped this approach will encourage brand owners to eliminate and reduce packaging, adopt reuse models, and switch to materials and formats that are easier to recycle.
Crucially, revenue from the new fee structure will be invested in the downstream system to address economic barriers impeding progress toward national packaging targets.
These funds will support end markets, enhance reprocessing infrastructure, and strengthen collection networks.
Highlights of the plan include:
Increased recycling: direct support for high-quality collection, recycling, and packaging stewardship activities that, additional to business-as-usual, will enable the achievement of recycling targets and the production of high-quality Australian recycled content.
New membership fee model: following modelling and targeted consultation, APCO member fees will be calculated using eco-modulation (ecological modulation). This will be based on each member’s packaging profile and incentivises the design of packaging for reduction, reuse, and recovery. The aim is for these to be in place in the financial year 2026-27.
New indicators: The goals of the Covenant will be tracked using new indicators in addition to the NPTs, including the reduction of materials sent to landfill. By 2030, this reduction target is set at 1 million tonnes.
Social license: the plan ensures that brand owners will have a supportive system that allows community expectations on packaging design and disposal to be met.
Though this method is new to Australia, it has been successful in countries like the Netherlands, Belgium, and France.
The strategy follows a thorough review of Australia’s packaging targets by APCO in 2022, which identified technical and economic barriers hindering higher recycling rates.
Foley added that the new strategy will add to, rather than replace, Australia’s existing recycling system and activity.
“We’re aiming to support and grow the existing system”, he said.
“Local governments and the waste and recycling sectors are key. Together, we need to collect and work out where funds can be most effectively applied to drive up recycling.
“That could be collection systems for problematic materials such as expanded polystyrene or a national consumer education campaign to increase recycling rates at kerb side.”
APCO is responsible to Australia’s Environment Ministers for achieving the national packaging targets. The Covenant’s goals stay the same with the new strategy, aiming to enhance packaging and material recovery and reduce litter impact.
The Covenant’s progress will be monitored with new indicators, such as reducing landfill materials.
The strategy was crafted in collaboration with APCO’s more than 2400 industry members and key stakeholders, including waste and recycling sectors, industry associations, and governments.
“At Unilever, we believe EPR schemes where companies pay to support the collection and processing of packaging can help to improve recycling systems,” said Brooke Sprott, head of Sustainable Business and Communications – Unilever ANZ.
“The eco-modulated fee structure being developed by APCO is a significant step towards enhancing packaging material circularity in Australia.
“This initiative aligns with Unilever’s plastic reduction goals and reinforces our commitment to lead by example for systems change on a global scale.”
Suzanne Toumbourou, CEO, Australian Council of Recycling, called the strategy a ‘game-changer’.
“This collaborative and forward-thinking approach is a game-changer, aiming to enhance packaging material circularity and drive improvements across the entire supply chain,” she said.
“We welcome the focus on creating investment certainty and markets for the recycling system, supporting community confidence and delivering environmental benefits.”
The Covenant and NEPM are designed to ensure brand owners help mitigate the environmental impacts of packaging.
By fulfilling their collective obligations as Covenant signatories, brand owners gain access to APCO’s support and resources. In exchange, they provide funding to enable APCO to drive progress toward the targets
and goals.
APCO, in turn, is accountable to the Environment Ministers for its efforts.
The strategy will be updated as required in response to the packaging reform process currently underway under the leadership of the Commonwealth Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Waste (DCCEEW).
According to the time line, the next step will see State and Federal Governments undertake any necessary legislative processes to establish the new regulatory scheme ahead of establishing them by the end of 2025.