As a member-based industry organisation, The Packaging Forum manages two voluntary product stewardship schemes funded by its members; but also provides opportunities for members to engage directly with key stakeholders, including Government, industry, and community representatives.
The Forum’s Soft Plastic Recycling Scheme (SPRS) has just re-launched collections in Blenheim, and the Nelson and Tasman regions, taking the number of collection points in the upper South Island to 13, and to 265 across New Zealand.
Forum CEO, Rob Langford, says the recent opening of processing partner Future Post’s new Blenheim operation has helped the Scheme expand its collections into the upper South Island.
“It’s an exciting time for the Scheme, which is 100 percent funded by members, with levies used to fund collections from stores, baling and transport to end markets and the cost of recycling the soft plastic into posts, garden frames or building products.”
The Forum also hosted an industry event for the Hon Rachel Brooking, Associate Minister for the Environment, and officials from the Ministry for the Environment to talk about the Government’s waste work programme and to answer questions about how the new policies impact the supply chain.
Maintaining an open dialogue with key officials and providing opportunities for members to engage directly with them are key for The Forum, which represents the packaging industry – from suppliers and importers of packaging, brand owners, retailers, resource recovery businesses and processors.
Rob says that Minister Brooking’s presence was well received by attendees as it gave them a chance to ask direct questions about recent changes to waste legislation.
“There’s been a lot of legislative changes announced this year which have a huge impact on our members’ businesses and their future planning – and some of these changes have resulted in more questions from industry, so it was brilliant to have her team there to answer these directly.