As Australia prepares to clean up on Sunday 2 March 2008, one group is working hard to stop packaging getting there in the first place.

The National Packaging Covenant (NPC) is a unique initiative between government and industry, to decrease the amount of packaging ending up in landfill.

he first of its type in the world, the NPC works together with packaging manufacturers, brand owners and retailers to reduce packaging waste.

T All members of the packaging supply chain have the opportunity to sign and participate in the Covenant. Brand owners with a turnover of more than $5 million can potentially be penalised for not participating. NPC sees landfill as a major issue.

In 2002-2003 Australians threw away more than 32 million tonnes of waste* of which about half ended up in landfill. Studies show our obsession to own more and consume more is contributing to this figure.

National Packaging Covenant, CEO, Ed Cordner, says landfill is not the best way to dispose of waste. “Greenhouse gas emissions from landfill are impacting on our carbon footprint and valuable resources which can be recycled are going to waste,” Mr Cordner said. “If we are going to turn off our computers at the wall, our TV standby lights, fill our homes with energy globes and install water tanks, then landfill is everyone’s concern, not just this generation but generations to come.

NPC funds over 50 projects across Australia with a total cost of $47 million, which identify better ways to recycle, reuse or stop packaging ending up in landfill. These projects have the potential to divert more than 740,000 tonnes of consumer packaging from landfill the equivalent of 7,000 Olympic sized swimming pools.

One NPC project is in Tasmania, the ‘Look who’s littering – on the road’ campaign. Assisted with funding by the NPC the project aims to raise public awareness of the recently introduced new litter laws in Tasmania.

The laws aim to stop people littering and throwing packaging items, such as food and drink containers, onto roads.A key feature of the new laws is that it is now possible to report litter bugs, particularly those littering from cars, to a phone hotline or website address.

Another NPC project has introduced bottle crushing machines to 80 pubs and bars in Sydney. The machine crushes bottles to a consistent size for recycling - so reducing the amount of small glass particles which end up in waste, because they cannot be optically sorted.

*According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.