ompanies who were signatories to the first National Packaging Covenant, should, by now, have received an information pack inviting them to sign the new Covenant. In establishing a sign-on date of 30 September, it is acknowledged that some companies will be required to follow internal processes which cannot be completed before the end of September. Flexibility will be allowed in these cases.
Follow-up letters will be sent in mid-late October for those signatories who have not signed the Covenant. Eventually, brand owners who have not re-signed will be referred to the relevant state authorities and advised accordingly.

Information sessions on the new Covenant are being held in September in the state Capital Cities. Details of these sessions, which have been extensively publicised, can be obtained from the PCA Office.

Some important Covenant matters remain to be resolved and implemented including:

• Small Business Exemption - As with the first Covenant there will be a small business exemption for applying the NEPM (the regulatory safety net) to “brandowners”. The draft exemption to be considered by Ministers at their 30 September Ministerial meeting is as follows;
  
  » If a brand owner has a turnover of greater than $5 million they will be subject to the NEPM (unless they become a signatory to the Covenant).
  » If a brand owner has a turnover of less than $2 million they will not be subject to the NEPM.
  » If a brand owner has a turnover of between $2-5 million they will be considered for the application of the NEPM, if they exceed the draft tonnage threshold of 25 tonnes of packaging per year. Companies must calculate the total tonnage of primary and distribution packaging produced and sold to packaging users or used on products intended for direct sale to consumers. They may do this by using a default calculation table of average weight for different units of packaging.
  
  
• The NEPM - Under the new Covenant, Western Australia has yet to implement a new NEPM. There can be little optimism that this will be a speedy process, given that WA took four years to put the NEPM in place under the first Covenant.

• Action plans - They will need to provide an Action Plan which specifically addresses relevant KPIs, 13 of which directly relate to companies/industry:
  
  » two KPIs (numbers 1 and 6) concern individual brand owners;
  » another two (numbers 2 and 5) concern individual packaging manufacturers;
  » while three (numbers 3, 4 and 22) affect the packaging supply chain;
  » all signatories must address certain KPIs (numbers 16, 21 and 26-29).
  
  
• Funding - Companies will be required to contribute to a fund aimed to raise at least $15M over the lifespan of the Covenant ($3M pa). These funds will be matched by government contributions and are to be used to improve the recovery and recycling rates for packaging. Except for retailers, the funding schedule is the same as for the first Covenant.



• Company response – In deciding whether or not to sign the new Covenant companies will need to take into account the following:
  » Are you a brand owner to which the NEPM applies?
  » The potential for customer/supply chain pressure.
  » Cost and resourcing issues for your company.
  » Do you need to appoint a company representative to be responsible for the Covenant who:
     › handles internal issues, including data collection and develops the Action Plan.
     › implements company adoption of the Environmental Code of Practice.
     › provides advice on customer concerns/issues.
     › “educates” staff on Covenant matters– particularly marketing/sales reps.
  

he PCA’s Primary School materials proposal is underway. This is a suite of resources which investigate the stories, processes and interactions of packaging for the middle and upper years of primary schools (years 3-6). The need for these resources was identified following a resource audit and workshops with practicing teachers and industry representatives. They will be cross referenced to State and Territory curriculum frameworks.

The next six-seven months will involve development, trialing and marketing of these materials. PCA aims for the Primary School materials to be delivered to Victorian Primary Schools for the start of the 2006 academic year. We then plan to make these resources available to remaining Australian States and Territories.

PackEE - Packaging Education Expose - This monthly publication has become a useful tool for reaching our target audience. Requests or queries for further information are now common place. Recipient numbers have risen from 49 (March 2005) to 113 (August 2005). The PackEE Volume 06/05 will be disseminated toward the end of September.

Education Corner – “Frequently Asked Questions” – A “Frequently Asked Questions” (FAQ) segment, specifically for the educational community and wider public, is a new feature on PCA’s Education Corner homepage.

In line with PCA’s other educational tools, such as the Teacher Resource Database and Fact Sheets, the FAQs has been set up to be both informative and user-friendly. New content will be added, and old content will be refined, as questions roll in.

The FAQs homepage (click here) is made up of the following sections:

• Questions & Answers


• Question of the Month


• Novelty Corner


• Ask a Question


• Useful Links

To subscribe to PackEE or forward any comments, please contact Tania Sacco, Education & Community Awareness Manager at education@packcoun.com.au or Ph: 03 9690 1955.