Scion is guiding efforts aimed at reducing plastic packaging and plastic pollution across Oceania.

The Australia, New Zealand, and Pacific Islands Plastics Pact (ANZPAC) brings together key individuals from more than 100 organisations to accelerate a circular economy for plastics. Collectively, they have developed a roadmap that looks to drive change and behaviour among manufacturers and consumers of plastic packaging.

Dr Florian Graichen, Scion’s general manager – Forests to Biobased Products, is among industry experts on ANZPAC’s Collective Action Group (ACAG) tasked with shaping strategic priorities and to guide a programme of work being rolled out to 2025.

The roadmap is focussed on four targets:

• Eliminate unnecessary and problematic plastic packaging through redesign, innovation, and alternative (re-use) delivery models.
• 100% of plastic packaging will be reusable, recyclable, or compostable 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.

One of the key resources for influencing the direction of change for ANZPAC is Scion’s report, Making zero the hero, released in 2022. It focuses on re-using and recycling the plastics we mostly use now and stopping them from escaping into the environment. It identified the challenges, barriers and opportunities to understand how global plastic supply chains are part of New Zealand’s transition to a New Plastics Economy.

Combining Scion’s report with other Australasian plastics initiatives, it is hoped the shared knowledge, industry-led innovation and coordinated action will achieve the targets that feed into the globally aligned Ellen MacArthur Foundation global Plastics Pact Network.

To achieve ANZPAC’s Regional Plastics Targets, APCO (ANZPAC lead organisation) chief executive Chris Foley says that the region needs to substantially change its relationship with plastic packaging.

“The ANZPAC Roadmap to 2025 outlines the essential actions and collaboration we need from all key players across the region to develop a circular economy for plastics.

“Organisations such as Scion help ANZPAC to understand the unique position and barriers of businesses and organisations in New Zealand and provide the insights to develop solutions that work across our diverse geographies.”

ANZPAC’s Roadmap to 2025 report shows that in 2020, an estimated 1.3 million tonnes of plastic packaging entered markets across Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands. Only 16.6% of this was effectively recovered through recycling.