Brownes Dairy, a West Australian brand, will change its cartons to Tetra Pak’s unbleached renewable milk cartons in its latest step to lead sustainability in the dairy industry.
Brownes Dairy’s fresh farm white milk will remain the same inside but will now come in an environmentally friendly craft board that requires less processing and less material.
Brownes Dairy scoured the planet for the most sustainable milk carton packaging in the market, Brownes CEO Natalie Sarich-Dayton said.
“We were the first to switch to materials derived from sugar cane several years ago, but now our consumers can see that the carton is made from a renewable source that has lower carbon impact to climate change,” Sarich-Dayton said.
Since 2016, Brownes has also been an active signatory of the Australian Packaging Covenant Organisation, a packaging value chain to keep packaging materials out of a landfill and retains the maximum value of the materials, energy, labour within the local economy.
By switching to plant-based polyethylene material in the cartons, the carbon footprint of this packaging is reduced by 16 per cent over regular milk cartons. The plant-based cartons also remove reliance on fossil-based polyethylene in the packages.
“Brownes Dairy wants to ensure that the next generation of Australian families enjoy the goodness and freshness of our products and can do so knowing we use the most sustainable milk cartons available,” Sarich-Dayton said.
Brownes was the first to market with the innovative Tetra Pak plant-based cartons made from renewable materials back in 2019.
Tetra Pak’s renewable milk carton is 100 per cent recyclable, and they are actively working with government and other partners to improve onshore recycling capability.
Tetra has invested in a recycling facility that turns everyday household waste such as milk cartons into building products in partnership with the NSW government and Closed Loop.
Opening in late 2022, this is the first of many new initiatives to improve Australia’s recycling capability onshore.
There is a lot of focus on recycling, but 99 per cent of packaging impacts to climate changes have occurred before products hit the shelves, Tetra Pak managing director Andrew Pooch said.
“To make a real contribution to reducing the impact on climate change, then whole life cycle of consumer product needs to be considered; including the source, manufacturing and transport,” Pooch said.
Brownes also partnered with Trillion Trees Australia, an environmental restoration not-for-profit organisation, to contribute to the Trillion Trees Challenge of planting a trillion trees to help address climate change.
The community-based organisation has been active since 1979 in Western Australia and has planted more than 15 million native trees alongside 80,000 volunteers.
The organisation was delighted that an iconic Australian brand such as Brownes was actively doing its part in creating a more sustainable future, Trillion Trees Australia CEO Denise True said.
“As Australia’s oldest dairy company, it is fantastic to work with Brownes on their journey towards a sustainable organisation,” True said.