National Packaging Covenant - Draft Action Plan - July 2008 to June 2010
Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts, 2009
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- National Packaging Covenant - Draft Action Plan - July 2008 to June 2010 (PDF - 267 KB) | (RTF - 307 KB )
Executive Summary
The Australian Government’s National Packaging Covenant (the Covenant) Action Plan 2008–2010 has been approved by the Hon Peter Garrett AM MP, Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts. The Covenant is a voluntary initiative by Government and industry with the key objective being to reduce the environmental impacts of consumer packaging and office paper in Australia. Responsibility for delivery of the Covenant is shared between all sectors of the packaging supply chain, consumers, collectors, reprocessors and all levels of government.
As a signatory to the Covenant, the Australian Government is required to prepare an action plan outlining how the Covenant will be implemented in its business operations. This is the Australian Government’s second action plan under the strengthened Covenant (Covenant Mark II). The action plan covers a two-year period from July 2008 to June 2010. It provides a commitment to continue implementing actions developed under the 2006–2008 action plan in addition to introducing new initiatives to improve packaging waste management across Australian Government operations.
The Australian Government is committed to exploring further opportunities to improve sustainability and reduce impacts on the environment as a whole, including packaging.
This action plan provides details of the Australian Government’s activities that will contribute to the objectives and overarching targets set out in the Covenant. It may be amended at any time to reflect emerging priorities and initiatives. The Australian Government will incorporate the principles of the Covenant in its operations through:
- minimising the use of packaging and paper and using products that can be recovered
- implementing recovery systems for used packaging material and paper to maximise recovery, including in public places, and
- purchasing of products that incorporate recovered materials. The Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts is the agency responsible for managing the implementation of this action plan and preparing an annual report to the National Packaging Covenant Council. Further details on many of the activities outlined in this action plan can be found on the department’s website: www.environment.gov.au.
