In line with the responsibility as an international corporate citizen to care for the environment, Kyocera Mita Australia Pty Ltd has re-signed and committed to Australian Packaging Covenant. The Australian Packaging Covenant replaces the National Packaging Covenant which expired on 30 June 2010.
What is the Australian Packaging Covenant?
The Australian Packaging Covenant (‘Covenant’) is an agreement between companies in the supply chain and all levels of government to reduce the environmental impacts of consumer packaging. This will be achieved by:
• designing packaging that is more resource efficient and more recyclable;
• increasing the recovery and recycling of used packaging from households and away-from-home sources; and
• taking action to reduce the incidence and impacts of litter.
The Covenant is based on the waste hierarchy: that is, it puts high priority on avoiding and minimising packaging waste, followed by reuse, recycling, recovery and finally, disposal.
As a signatory to the Covenant, Kyocera Mita Australia Pty Ltd:
• acknowledges that packaging has economic and social benefits, which include the containment, preservation, protection, marketing, distribution and branding of goods. Packaging also has environmental impacts throughout its life cycle which need to be managed.
• agree to work together to implement and promote the principle of product stewardship for packaging. This means that responsibility for managing the environmental impacts of packaging is shared throughout the supply chain (raw material suppliers, packaging manufacturers and suppliers, brand owners and retailers) and by consumers, waste service providers, recyclers and all levels of government - Australian, state, territory and local.
The objective of the Covenant is to minimise the overall environmental impacts of packaging by pursuing these performance goals:
1. Design: optimise packaging to use resources efficiently and reduce environmental impact without compromising product quality and safety.
2. Recycling: efficiently collect and recycle packaging.
3. Product Stewardship: demonstrate commitment by all signatories.
These goals will be achieved through the collaborative efforts of the Covenant Council and the actions of individual signatories. The Covenant Council will assist signatories to meet their Covenant obligations through capacity building. The Covenant commences on 1 July 2010. The Covenant Council will evaluate the Covenant’s performance every 5 years and will report the outcomes to Environmental Protection and Heritage Council (EPHC).
To view Kyocera Mita Australia’s Australian Packaging Covenant Action Plan click here
National Packaging Covenant
Kyocera Mita Australia Pty Ltd has voluntarily joined and committed to the National Packaging Covenant in 2003.
What is the National Packaging Covenant?
The National Packaging Covenant is the leading instrument for managing packaging waste in Australia. It was signed by the Australian and New Zealand Environment and Conservation Council Ministers, Local Government and a broad range of industries in the packaging supply chain on 27 August 1999.
It is a self-regulatory agreement between industries in the packaging chain and all spheres of government, based on the principles of shared responsibility through product stewardship, and applied throughout the packaging chain, from raw material suppliers to retailers, and the ultimate disposal of waste packaging.
The Covenant has a life span of five years. It is not prescriptive, does not tell companies how to make their packaging or what type of packaging to use; nor does it implement regulation requiring businesses to take back materials recovered from kerbside recycling collection programs.
The goals of the Covenant are to minimise the environmental impacts of consumer packaging waste throughout the entire life cycle of the packaging product, close the recycling loop, develop economically viable and sustainable recycling collection systems and ensure that the voluntary process continues.
Signatories to the National Packaging Covenant are required to produce Action Plans. To view the Kyocera Mita Australia National Packaging Covenant Action Plan click here
Kyocera NPC Certificate
Further information relating to the Packaging Covenant simply visit: http://www.deh.gov.au/settlements/waste/covenant/ or http://www.packagingcovenant.org.au/