After winning the Beverage Packaging Action Award in 2006, Golden Circle has again presented a strong entry.
A focus on reducing packaging waste by considering the type of material used, and how much, has enabled Golden Circle to continue to achieve significant results over the past 12 months.
A notable achievement has been the replacement of Golden Circle’s Tetra 1L square container, which used non-recyclable laminated paper, with the 1L PET container, making the product recyclable in Australia.
Golden Circle currently sources all PET containers with 25% recycled content and aims to achieve a site-wide conversion to 25% recycled PET by next year.
The downgauging of cans and cardboard cartons also generates less waste.
During 2006, the downgauging of caps on 1.5L PET carbonated soft drink and 750ml PET cordial bottles resulted in a one-piece cap that uses less material than the previous two-piece cap.
New caps consisting of a polypropylene shell with PET foam will ensure the packaging material is reduced considerably and is more recyclable.
Recycling programs, such as sending beverage dumps and damages to an external product destruction facility, send waste residue to a composting facility as well as recycle PET, polypropylene, glass and LDPE containers.
The use of returnable pallets and tankers for transporting chemicals, plastic and glass bottles has minimised container disposal.
The introduction of shelf-ready products at Golden Circle will considerably reduce the amount of fibre board used and lightweighting of polypropylene bottles will reduce polypropylene packaging by twenty-three tonnes over the next twelve months.
Internal recycling and environmental awareness initiatives, such as colour-coding the skips onsite to ensure the staff recycles materials appropriately, are also central to Golden Circle’s packaging waste management efforts.
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