Capturing the Prize: the A$200 billion opportunity for Australia's food and agribusiness sector / Enhanced Production and Value Addition / Sustainable Packaging
Extracting more value out of the supply chain by developing sustainable packaging through innovation, redesigns, light-weighting and ensuring packaging is reusable, recyclable or compostable.
Brookfarm is a generational Australian family business with a commitment to sustainability spanning over 30 years. It produces macadamia products and premium health foods, from breakfast cereals to snacks.
With ambition to move toward a circular economy, it has launched a kerbside-recyclable soft plastic ‘stand-up’ pouch for its muesli, with packaging partner OF Packaging.
There are two innovations. First, moving the packaging from a complex 3-layer lamination (Recycle 7) to a sophisticated single-layer polymer (Recycle 4), making the pouch easier to recycle for Materials Recovery Facilities (MRFs).
The second innovation has been named ‘Roll ‘N’ Recycle.’ The empty muesli pouch can be rolled up and secured with the accompanying Roll ‘N’ Recycle sticker, changing the soft plastic to a rigid three-dimensional shape. This means that consumers can put the pouch straight into their home kerbside recycling bin, instead of having to return it to a third party.
This innovation makes it far easier for consumers to recycle, and allows it to be sorted correctly through standard recycling collections. It adds value to the already eco-focused Brookfarm brand, increasing its competitive differentiation.
It has been recognised with two ‘Gold’ Australasian Packaging Innovation & Design Awards (PIDA) from the Australian Institute of Packaging (AIP), a WorldStar Packaging Award from the World Packaging Organisation (WPO), and the Diamond Award in the DOW Awards.
It took two years of collaboration to realise this innovation. It’s the first to market not only for the Roll ‘n’ Recycle program, but for any type of kerbside recyclable flexible packaging format made from soft plastics.
The high-barrier, mono-polymer pouch was created as a more sustainable alternative to their previous metallised, multi-laminate structure, while keeping their existing brand heritage and pack style. Despite being mono-polymer and made entirely from PE, the pack still has the functionality of the original with use of a reseal zipper closure and tear notches.
The Roll ‘n’ Recycle label is affixed to the pack prior to the filling process, using an adhesive made to allow the label to be peeled back and re-adhered to the pouch once rolled. This label, in addition to the on-pack instructions for how the process works, encourages the consumer to lift and peel back the label to a certain point, and communicates that once rolled, the pack can then be recycled through the household co-mingled recycling bin.
Brookfarm is transferring its full range to Roll ‘N’ Recycle packaging to realise its zero-landfill ambition.
This case study is from FIAL's 2022 edition of Celebrating Australian Food and Agribusiness Innovations 2022
