It is not enough, however, to just rely on using recycled packaging. Another important factor has been eliminating the use of excessive packaging throughout our operations. Kellogg Australia has employed a number of methods for reducing excessive packaging, whilst still maintaining the quality, safety and convenience that you, as consumers, have come to expect from our products. We are reducing the amount of packaging that we generate, that means that we are giving our consumers less waste to manage - so everyone benefits!

Over recent years, we have made steady but significant progress in reducing absolute wastage in raw and packaging materials. Recycling systems have been improved and extended to more and more areas of our plant operations. We recognise that there is always more effort that can be made - so continual enhancement programs are in place throughout our operations and in all our dealings with key suppliers. A big improvement has been the move towards maximizing the reuse of inbound and outbound packaging in bulk and large catering packs. Deliveries between manufacturing or packaging facilities is now done in reusable bulk containers and bulk delivery of raw materials such as flour, sugar and grains, is done in tanker loads with intermediate storage in silos and hoppers to avoid packaging.

Longstanding collection and recycling systems for paper and board excess materials exist at all of Kellogg’s® manufacturing facilities. All waste and by-product movements are monitored and reuse-recycle alternatives are investigated and implemented by a cross-management group that includes commercial, production, quality, engineering and environment representatives. We are proud to report that our Botany plant reuses or recycles more than 85% (by mass) of waste materials and by-products.

However, at Kellogg, in addition to identifying actions to reduce waste and to maximise the reuse and recycling of waste materials, we are also looking for ways to help our consumers channel the waste material from our products to recycling.

We are committed to delivering quality food products, which maintain their freshness and shelf life. This freshness is provided by the inner liner bag that seals the cereals, which is predominantly made of HDPE (High Density Polyethylene). Although HDPE itself can be recycled, the flexible nature of our cereal liner limits its reuse, and it is currently not recycled. Our snack bar wrappers, like the cereals’ liner bags, also maintain freshness and allow the food to be stored longer, helping to reduce food waste.
 

It is important that the liner bags from cereal packages and the wrappers from snack bars are placed into garbage bins. If these are incorrectly placed into recycling bins, they can contaminate the recycling stream, by making sorting harder at recycling centres. We encourage you, however, to try and place the cardboard packaging from all of our products into recycling bins, so that this material can be reused in the future.

The National Packaging Covenant (Covenant) has been the leading instrument for managing the environmental impacts of consumer packaging in Australia since 1999. It is the voluntary component of a co-regulatory arrangement based on the principles of shared responsibility through product stewardship, between key stakeholders in the packaging supply chain and all spheres of government. The Covenant is designed to minimise environmental impacts arising from the disposal of used packaging, conserve resources through better design and production processes and facilitate the re-use and recycling of used packaging materials.

The initial Covenant, which expired in 2005 was extensively reviewed resulting in a significantly strengthened model committing signatories to a national recycling target of 65% for packaging and no further increases in packaging waste disposed to landfill by the end of 2010.

Kellogg has demonstrated its ongoing support of the Covenant by re-signing the revised model to commit for a further five years. Kellogg supports the principles of product stewardship and shared responsibility and continually aims to improve environmental performance across our Australian operations.

The Covenant requires signatories to demonstrate continuous improvement in their management of packaging through their individual Action Plans and Annual Reports.

Click here to view Kellogg’s current Action Plan.  Click here to view Kellogg’s NPC Action Plan Annual report.

To read more about the NPC, visit the website of The Federal Department of Environment and Heritage or the Packaging Council of Australia