A focus on source reduction, lightweighting and material selection has made Coca-Cola Amatil (CCA) a finalist in the Beverage Packaging Action category.
Continued commitment to sustainable development by providing an end market for post-consumer PET packaging, as well as kerbside recovery facilities, has been complemented by the National Packaging Covenant’s Environmental Code of Practice for Packaging (ECoPP), which CCA implemented in 2006.
A checklist derived from the ECoPP was developed and added to the approval process for new product and packaging design to ensure the environmental impacts of new packaging investments are considered and documented at the initial stages of development, minimising the impacts of disposable packaging.
The introduction of lightweighted PET bottles for carbonated soft drink products in 2003 saved CCA Australia 18,000 tonnes of PET.
In 2006 the company reduced its product-to-packaging ratio by weight from 15:1 in 2005, to 14.8:1, as a result of lightweighting and other design initiatives.
CCA is currently carrying out trials for using less pallet stretch wrap in their Pacific Beverages operations and has already replaced stretch wrap with strips of sticky tape, reducing the amount of material used, despite this being a more costly option.
Staff awareness and training is being incorporated into induction programs and general environmental awareness training is being delivered across operations sites.
An internal long-term target aims to reduce the amount of general waste sent to landfill to 5% of total waste across Australia.