The Australian Packaging Covenant sits under the National Waste Policy and is the voluntary component of a regulatory arrangement based on the principles of shared responsibility through product stewardship, between key stakeholders in the supply chain and all levels 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 Sustainable Packaging Guidelines include the following design strategies:
- Maximise water and energy efficiency
- Minimise materials (source reduction)
- Use recycled materials
- Use renewable materials
- Minimise risks associated with potentially toxic and hazardous materials
- Use materials from responsible suppliers
- Design for transport
- Design for reuse
- Design for recovery
- Design for litter reduction
- Design for consumer accessibility
- Provide consumer information.
There are a number of case studies based on these guidelines.
