As regulatory pressures mount and technology evolves, Visy is leading the charge with local innovation, circular manufacturing, and integrated solutions designed to help customers meet growing environmental expectations.
Decision Maker Column – Adrian Dalgleish, Executive General Manager of Packaging, Visy
Do the nation’s tradies and weekend DIY renovators really care about sustainability? Sales of our new temporary surface protection, Visy Tread, says they do. The locally made 100 per cent recycled paper and kerbside recyclable product is flying off Bunning’s shelves. But it’s not just tradies – retailers, beer drinkers and beauty brands are also following suit. In Australia, it is critical to put sustainability at the centre of brand and product development.
Manufacturing is vital to Australia’s economy – driving jobs, innovation and our GDP. This comes as we experience global and domestic supply challenges, increased energy and labour costs, and changes to technology and consumer preferences.
At Visy, we’re putting our customers, and their sustainability demands, front-and-centre. Many of our customers span multiple substrates, be it cardboard boxes, glass jars, plastic bottles and aluminium or steel cans. It makes sense to service them in a more coordinated, integrated way and we are in the process of consolidating our fibre and primary packaging divisions into one. As the executive general manager of this new division, I’m keen to use technology to drive our business in support of our customers and bring our sustainability improvements and innovations to market faster.
By taking a unified approach to our packaging business, we can provide a more consistent customer experience and partner with them to deliver their operational and sustainability goals.
Visy recycles circa two million tonnes of material from households and businesses, giving us insight into the opportunities that are available through the existing recycling streams. Our focus is on products made with recycled content, which are easily recycled and made in Australia. This positions us well to innovate collaboratively with customers to achieve best-in-class sustainability.
In addition to customer targets and consumer preferences for sustainable products, the regulatory environment is forcing action. The targets set out in the 2024 National Waste Policy Action Plan (agreed by Australia’s environment ministers last December) will move sustainability from the periphery of the conversation to its centre. The action plan includes targets for increased recycling, greater use of recycled content, a phase out of problematic materials and export bans on waste.
Expectations about sustainability are constantly changing and so we’re always working with customers to innovate. Last year we partnered with seafood producer, Tassal Group to produce a cardboard box for prawns, which replaces an expanded polystyrene box. The award-winning prawn box – which is made with recycled content and easily recycled – has replaced more than 33,000 polystyrene boxes (and counting).
We are also in the process of bringing to market a new product called Visycell, a recyclable insulation pad made from recycled fibre that is easily recycled after use. When combined with a box, it is a sustainable substitute for polystyrene boxes such as those used for ready-meal home delivery and fresh seafood.
So for us, it’s no longer a question of whether industry will act but how quickly it can adapt.
Soft plastics remain an unresolved challenge for governments and industry. While they’re cheap to manufacture, soft plastics can’t be easily recycled. One way we’ve sought to reduce the use of soft plastics is to innovate. Working with the meat industry, we developed a linerless meat box for meat trimmings with a leakproof base that eliminates the need for a plastic bag, while keeping the meat safe and fresh. This is an example where design and sustainability come together to provide an improved overall packaging solution for our customers.
In some substrates, the drive for sustainability can come at a cost – with initial capital investment, input costs and recovery expenses sometimes higher than using virgin materials. Managing this while continuing to achieve outcomes with the least disruption at the right cost, is a challenge for all those in our supply chain.
Sustainability cannot come at the expense of shelf life and functionality, and technology advancements in packaging present a great opportunity for customers.
Advancements in technology that tracks key freshness indicators help to improve the quality of food and beverages on shelf. This not only benefits consumers but also provides opportunities to improve the supply chain to maximise shelf life and minimise food waste. Smart and interactive packaging using QR codes and other digital technologies can improve the interactive experience for consumers.
The rise of e-commerce is also driving demand for customised packaging solutions that minimise the environmental footprint.
Beyond the improvements our customers can see and feel, new technologies are an opportunity to be more efficient, reduce waste, and improve sustainability in our operations. One such example is the $150 million state-of-the-art investment in our Penrith glass facility. It is the country’s first oxygen-only fuelled furnace using less than half the energy than the one it replaced. The facility also uses advanced recycled cullet pre-heating technology to increase the use of recycled glass in our glass bottles and jars. We see this and other such adoptions of technology as an opportunity to future-proof our operations and meet growing expectations about sustainability.
Never before have we seen so many changes happening to manufacturing all at once. Supply chain disruptions, rapid advancements in technology and an increased focus on sustainability are transforming our industry. Manufacturers cannot ignore changes in consumer and customer trends – for us, it reinforces that we should deepen, even further, our focus on sustainability. We’re pleased that even the tradies and DIY enthusiasts won’t accept anything less.