Lion takes on soft plastics

Beverage company Lion has announced that it is the first major brewer in Australia to partner with national soft plastic recycling initiative REDcycle.

REDcycle — which collects and re-uses soft plastics that cannot go into kerbside recycling — has nearly 2000 drop-off bins located around Australia at Coles and Woolworths supermarkets, giving over 90% of the Australian population access to a REDcycle bin.

Between July and December 2018, more than 2.75 tonnes of Lion packaging was returned by consumers.

REDcycle currently collects over 750,000 pieces of soft plastic per day, accepting a diverse range of grocery packaging such as bread bags, frozen vegetable bags, biscuit packaging and shrink wrap from beer packaging. The recovered plastic is sent on to Victorian-based partners Replas, for conversion into valuable products such as benches and bollards, and Close The Loop, which blends the soft plastic with waste ink toner to create an additive for asphalt for municipal roads.

Lion CEO Stuart Irvine said the impact single-use plastics has on the environment is a key concern at Lion.

“For more than 20 years, Lion has invested in reducing litter, improving recyclability and increasing the use of recycled content in our packaging,” Irvine said.

“In the beer industry, plastic rings have been a real focal point in the war on plastic, and Lion was well and truly ahead of the curve in phasing out these rings 10 years ago, with the last plastic rings removed from Lion-owned products over three years ago. This is something we are very proud of.

“We are now evaluating alternative packaging technologies to further reduce our reliance on single-use plastics. We are also working with industry partners, such as the Australian Packaging Covenant Organisation, to develop broader industry solutions that minimise the impact of our packaging and promote the circular economy to minimise waste in the environment,” Irvine said.

“While we work our way through these big supply chain changes, actively supporting programs such as REDcycle helps raise awareness and encourages our consumers to ramp up their recycling efforts.

“We continue to work towards making 100% of our consumer packaging recyclable by 2025, and our packaging made from at least 50% recycled content in the same time frame, and we are well on track to achieve this.”

The partnership with REDcycle will see Lion add the REDcycle logo to its soft plastic packaging over the next 18 months.

RED Group Director Elizabeth Kasell said, “The REDcycle program would not be possible without the support of our partners such as Lion. We are so pleased to see organisations demonstrate their commitment to corporate stewardship and the circular economy by partnering with REDcycle for better end-of-life outcomes for their soft plastic packaging.”

Image credit: ©stock.adobe.com/au/MarkusL