A recent independent national audit by the Australian Council of Recycling (ACOR) found that after only two years, 23% of products on supermarket shelves contained the ARL. The National Retail Association commends industry for their ongoing efforts to implement the ARL program and celebrates these tremendous results.
Brooke Donnelly, CEO, APCO said “I am incredibly proud of the hard work and leadership shown by Australian industry over the last two years to incorporate the ARL on their packaging and achieve so much in such a short time.”
Since launching in Melbourne in September 2018, more than 469 organisations have joined the ARL Program, including many of Australia’s best-known brands and retailers, with tens of thousands of products already carrying the label in market. The Program has seen strong uptake within supermarkets in Australia and has also welcomed a host of new members, including Super Retail Group, Kmart, Natures Organics, Kellogg’s and many others.
Coles’ General Manager Own Brand, Quality and Responsible Sourcing, Brad Cook said as a business committed to driving generational sustainability, the company was proud to be an active member of APCO, and display the ARL on many Own Brand products. “The ARL is now displayed on over 2,200 Own Brand products, and this number will continue to grow as we update packaging and launch new products. It is a great way to clearly communicate with our customers how they can recycle each component of our Own Brand packaging.”
Nicole Sparshott, Unilever Australia and New Zealand CEO commented: “As a founding signatory of the Australasian Recycling Label we are really excited that nearly a quarter of all products on supermarket shelves now contain the label… By educating consumers how to recycle correctly we can create behaviour change at scale and significantly reduce the amount of packaging waste. Key to achieving this is making sure Australia has a clear, consistent and evidence-based label on every product and packaging type which is why the ARL is so valuable and we encourage other organisations to join the program.”
ABOUT THE AUSTRALASIAN RECYCLING LABEL
In 2018, APCO launched the Australasian Recycling Label, an on-pack labelling scheme that helps consumers understand how to recycle products correctly and assists brand owners to design packaging that is recyclable at end-of-life. The ARL is the only evidence-based labelling system on the market and is powered by the Packaging Recyclability Evaluation Portal (PREP), an online tool that assesses packaging recyclability in the Australian and New Zealand recovery systems. APCO Members have free and exclusive access to the PREP tool.
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