Fonterra partners with Big Bag Recovery to reduce landfill and cut emissions
Fonterra has recently signed on to the Big Bag Recovery program in Australia, which gives large industrial plastic bags new life by turning them into products made from recycled content via its sister company Circular Communities Australia. These products include school and community chairs and water evaporation floating covers.
The program specifically targets woven polypropylene and low-density polyethylene bags, which until now haven’t had a nationally endorsed or structured pathway to recycling and often end up in landfill.
Under the program, Fonterra’s bulk ingredients customers can opt to return these bags to Big Bag Recovery for recycling.
Fonterra Production Operator Travis Palmer with a pile of one-tonne bags that can now be recycled through the Big Bag Recovery Program.
With 14,000 of the one-tonne bulk bags distributed every year, if every bag is recycled, Fonterra and its customers could reduce up to 57,407 kg of CO2e emissions annually, comparable to taking 12,480 cars off the road for a year.
Fonterra Oceania GM of Sustainability, Rosie Cotter, said Fonterra’s participation in the Big Bag Recovery program in Australia is a vital step in meeting its sustainability goals.
“As well as helping to reduce emissions, recycling these bags has the potential to divert around 40 tonnes of reusable plastic into the circular economy each year, unlocking a valuable resource.
“The collaboration with Big Bag Recovery is the latest in a range of packaging partnerships for Fonterra in Australia, where we are one of the founding supporters of the National Plastics Recycling Scheme and a member of Australian Packaging Covenant Organisation (APCO).
“In addition to reducing the impact of our industrial packaging through this program, we also have around 30 sustainable packaging projects underway in Australia earmarked to improve the recyclability of approximately 250 products on supermarket shelves,” said Rosie.
For more information, head to Big Bag Recovery at https://www.bigbagrecovery.com.au.