t today's meeting of the Environment Protection and Heritage Council (EPHC), Ministers approved the new and strengthened Covenant with a five-year lifespan. Environment Ministers decided that the Covenant should have a recycling target of 65% for used packaging. Ministers have yet to finalise the basis for the small business exemption for brand owners (see Expose 05/05).

The terms of the Communique are still being finalised but it will be along the following lines:

• Governments entered a new agreement with industry to reduce packaging waste and to increase recycling over the next 5 years. The National Packaging Covenant commits signatories to allow no further increases in packaging waste to landfill and to a national recycling target for packaging of 65% (up from current 48%) by the end of 2010.


• All sectors will need to work together to achieve these targets, including companies in the packaging supply chain, manufacturers, waste collectors, local governments and recyclers, the Australian and all state and territory governments.


• The National Environment Protection Measure (NEPM) for Used Packaging Materials has been streamlined to support the strengthened Covenant. It will ensure voluntary action is backed with strong legislation, and governments are sending a strong message that action will be taken against companies that don’t meet their obligations. A clear small business threshold for the new NEPM will be developed for consideration by 30 September 2005. Ministers stated it was not their intention that businesses producing small amounts of waste be affected by the NEPM requirements.

Some jurisdictions - WA, SA and the NT - as well as environmental groups pushed for work to commence immediately on developing alternative policy options and particularly CDL. Indeed, prior to the Ministerial meeting Victorian Minister, John Thwaites had told an industry delegation that he supported the Covenant but thought that CDL would be high on the agenda over the next two-three years.

In the consultations leading up to the EPHC meeting, industry representatives made clear their opposition to a parallel policy process being instituted at the same time as a new Covenant came into effect. The time to formally consider alternatives to the Covenant would be after the 2008 review of the Covenant and only if that review clearly showed that the Covenant had failed to deliver.

We understand that Ministers have asked officials to investigate and report on other economic instruments that are complementary to the Covenant with such instruments being available for consideration should a mid-term review of the Covenant show that it will fail to deliver satisfactory outcomes.

Prior to the meeting, the Boomerang Alliance opposed the new Covenant saying it was a "pathetic package". Click here for details of their position. David Perchard has already responded vigorously to some of their wilder and incorrect statements about recycling outcomes in Europe - click here to read.

For industry, the task ahead is to make this Covenant work. That is going to be a harder job than in the previous Covenant.There is no question that the new Covenant is more onerous - companies will, for example, be required to address key performance indicators in their Action Plans. The Covenant document itself is lengthy - indeed too lengthy at nearly 100 pages - and will require companies to make a serious effort to "get their heads" around it.

We urge all members to do so.IWe will assist in this process. It is in the interests of all companies to make this Covenant work. Any alternatives will be much less palatable.

The new Covenant will formally commence on July 14. There will be a new signing up process for existing signatories.

Plastic Bags

EPHC also considered the plastic bags issues and decided as follows:

• Plastic bags' days appear to be numbered, with governments noting a phase out agreement from the Australian Retailers Association. Council noted that retailers were seeking supportive legislation to eliminate plastic bags from January 2009. The draft agreement would see retailers working to phase out the use of lightweight plastic carry bags by the end of 2008.



• While Council is expecting to consider a proposed agreement at its first meeting in 2006, Ministers have indicated that any decision to pursue further voluntary reductions between 2006 and 2008 will be influenced by the ability of Group 1 retailers to reach their 50% target by the end of 2005. Ministers have also asked for regulatory options to be further developed by early next year.



• In the mean time, Ministers encouraged all governments to implement new landfill and public place litter guidelines as part of the overall programme to keep plastic bags out of the environment.