Amcor making major green strides

Multinational packaging manufacturer Amcor says it has reduced its waste to landfill intensity by 31 per cent during the last financial year, in an annual sustainability report.

The company also claims to have lowered its greenhouse gas emissions by 13 per cent and water use at sites in Australia and New Zealand by 12 per cent.

This year will be the second year of Amcor’s half-decade EnviroAction period, which sets out reduction targets for waste to landfill, water and greenhouse gas emissions.

Ken MacKenzie, managing director and CEO of Amcor, says, “We are pleased with the progress we have made in our sustainability journey around our key priority areas including environment, community, workplace, marketplace and economy.

“Our global EnviroAction program continues to drive improvement in environmental performance throughout our operations. Two years into our second five-year EnviroAction period, I am pleased to report excellent results.”

The company aims to reduce waste to landfill by 50 per cent by 2015. It currently contributes 62 kilotonnes (11 per cent of its total waste) to landfill a year, which it says is mostly caused by contaminants in recycled paper feedstock in its Australian paper mills.

While global absolute water use decreased by only eight per cent since the 2010-11 financial year, the Australian business reports a saving of 12 per cent, working towards a 25 per cent target for 2015.

The company also says it created 10.9 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions in the 2012-13 financial year, ahead of its target of 10 per cent reduction by 2015 and progressing towards a 60 per cent reduction by 2030.

Amcor says that as a manufacturer the greatest positive contribution it can make to sustainability worldwide is to encourage customer demand for recycled PET and HDPE containers, and that the number of bottles it offers with 100 per cent PCR content has increased over the last five years.

It adds that manufacturing these bottles used more than 26,000 tonnes of post-consumer resin throughout the Americas this year.

Amcor also opened its $500m B9 paper machine in Botany, Australia, in February, an investment which is projected to lower water use by 26 per cent, energy by 34 per cent and waste to landfill by 75 per cent, producing paper made entirely of pre and post-consumer waste.

Amcor Flexibles also saw 599 assessments and 200 active users in its life cycle assessment service, the Advanced Sustainability Stewardship Evaluation Tool (ASSET), which identifies opportunities to improve the sustainability of packaging solutions.

However, it says the bioplastics market, with products made from renewable feedstock or compostable materials, is currently limited by the higher cost of materials compared to traditional materials as well as a lack of industrial composting infrastructure in most countries.

While 127 Amcor sites (around 56 per cent of its manufacturing plants) achieved ISO 14001 accreditation for Environmental Management Systems (EMS), including key sites in Europe, Australia, Asia and the US, the company also received four fines globally for non-compliance with environmental regulations.

This is the eleventh year the company has published information and data on its environment, social and economic performance. It notes that as well as improving its own operations, packaging has an important role to play in sustainability by minimising product spoilage or breakage, preserving resources invested in the product and ensuring it reaches consumers in a fit and safe condition.

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