PROGRESS REPORT

End-of-Life

As industry stewards, we take responsibility for enabling our customers to dispose of our products in an environmentally friendly way, contributing to the global shift towards a circular economy. We collaborate with governments, waste industries, and our customers to drive change, creating a roadmap for investment in technologies and infrastructure supporting the large-scale recovery of organic waste, including compostable food packaging and food scraps.

We launched a composting service for our customers in 2017, which has since evolved into Compost Connect – a not-for-profit, industry-led organisation that connects businesses to composters and compostable single-use disposables across Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom.

While we recognise the value of individual businesses composting, our focus this year is on the bigger challenge of expanding composting infrastructure across all the countries where we operate. By collaborating with local industrial composters, food producers, food retailers, and packaging companies, we aim to create a value chain that can significantly increase composting on a massive scale. Through partnerships with industry leaders, we can share experiences and build knowledge to drive waste recovery and promote compostable packaging and organic recycling as the norm.

This year, we are very proud that BioPak was awarded the Product Stewardship Excellence Award for Excellence in Emissions Reduction through Product Stewardship for our work on Compost Connect. Visit Compost Connect.

Richard Fine,
Founder

Compost Connect Objectives

All Compostable Packaging & Food Waste in One Bin

Save on General
Waste Costs

Divert Food Waste From Landfill

Reduce Greenhouse Gases & Help Fight Climate Change

Increase Customer Loyalty

Compost Connect Goals

GOAL 1:
Increase Composting Rates

Divert food and packaging waste from landfill by increasing the collection of organics from the foodservice sector and beyond. By increasing composting rates, we can divert more organic waste from landfills and significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions, helping to create a more sustainable future for our planet.

GOAL 2:
Educate About Composting & Compostable Packaging

Grow the compostable packaging market by developing education on the benefits of compostable packaging and composting. Educate consumers on composting certifications and logos to help reduce contamination at composting facilities. This, in turn, will encourage composters to accept more certified compostable packaging.

GOAL 3:
Greater Collaboration Between Packaging & Recovery Sectors

We aim to increase collaboration between the packaging industry and recovery sectors. Our goal is to create a value chain of industry experts who can help bring composting to the forefront of our government’s agenda. We believe that by working together, we can achieve our goal of building a sustainable and robust composting ecosystem.

Compost Connect Numbers

Servicing 2,600+ Suburbs, Across Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom since 2021.

4,002
Tonnes Tonnes of Waste From Landfill

2,801
Tonnes of Compost Created

280,140
Bags of 10kgs of Compost

2,041
Tonnes of Carbon Avoided and Sequestered

30
Composter Partners

Compost Connect Turns 2!

Our Progress

ON TRACK

Increase research funding

Over the next 12 months, we plan to commission research projects with industrial compost partners, food producers, and retailers to identify successful strategies for increasing composting rates nationwide. Our research will measure contamination levels, access to composting facilities, consumers' knowledge of labelling on compostable products and other factors that affect composting rates. By measuring and collecting data, we hope to build a solid collection of research-based models and lessons learnt that will allow us to advocate for wider availability of composting for compostable packaging and food waste.

Add more composters to Compost Connect

In almost two years, we have increased our list of compost partners from 17 to 30 – including major international companies like Suez.

Increase businesses composting packaging

269 businesses are part of the Compost Club to date. We have been offering incentives and waste recovery trials to businesses to expand this number, which involves educating their teams and understanding the challenges and opportunities to improve system efficiency. This year we conducted three trials with; two major QSRs, Tourism Noosa (seven businesses, including McDonald’s), and two restaurants.

Expand Compost Connect industry members

We want to engage with the rest of the industry by funding research and development projects to provide robust evidence that composable packaging can be successfully composted at scale.

Advocate for more councils to accept certified compostable packaging in the green bin

The Australian Federal Government is committed to a National Waste Strategy target to halve food waste by 2030. In line with this, they aim to provide all households with a compost bin for food and garden waste (FOGO) by 2030. This will have a massive impact on composting infrastructure, help build the Compost Connect network and help educate people and businesses about composting.

BioPak and Compost Connect released new data detailing the type of residential composting offered across Australia – see Compost Connect. 53 councils currently accept compostable packaging in their residential waste collection. We will continue funding research and petitioning more councils to do the same. Read more >

Educate consumers on compost certification

We work closely with industry advocacy groups, like the Australian Bioplastics Association (ABA) and Bio-based and Biodegradable Industries Association (BBIA) in the UK, to support wider public recognition of the compost certification logo. We have been adding the compost certification logos to more of our products as they get certified. We will conduct research to test consumers’ understanding of the compost certification. We will also aim to print or emboss the certifications on as many of our products as possible.

Overcome composting roadblocks in NSW, Australia

In July 2022, the NSW EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) in Australia announced that certified compostable packaging isn’t accepted in residential organic waste bins. We are currently working with the EPA to obtain a Specific Resource Recovery Order and Exemption (RROE) that will allow BioPak’s certified compostable packaging to be composted via FOGO household bins – this is in addition to our existing Australian Compost Certifications AS5810 (home) and/or AS4736 (industrial).

The process involves some field testing at our NSW compost partner’s facility and it is expected to last 10 months, with a final result expected by the end of 2023. We will continue to operate with transparency with all regulators, industry bodies, councils and businesses to help find a solution that supports a circular economy.

Compostable packaging is successfully accepted in residential composting spreams in Queensland, Tasmania, South Australian and Western Australia. See the Adelaide composting success story video below.

Launch Compost Connect in Singapore

In 2023, we plan to launch Compost Connect in Singapore. We are currently testing in-house industrial composting machinery with a sizable Singaporean institution to support our mission to create a world without waste and find the best end-of-life solution for our packaging in the region. Our team is exploring solutions like composting units for residential blocks to help facilitate more widespread composting in all our territories.

Compost Connect Successes

It is by working together with our customers, industry advocates, end consumers and government that we can achieve our goal of building a sustainable and robust composting infrastructure. Our efforts will benefit everyone, reducing waste to produce high-quality compost that can be used to enrich the soil and promote plant growth.

Compost Connect Awards

AFR Sustainability Leaders List 2023
BioPak & Compost Connect

Waste Minz Award for Excellence
Compost Connect

Product Stewardship Centre of Excellence
BioPak & Compost Connect

Composting Case Studies

Responsible Supply Chain

Profit for Purpose

This report and the associated sustainability initiatives include statements concerning BioPak's future business expectations, goals, and commitments to environmental, social, and governance (ESG) objectives. It is important to note that these forward-looking statements carry inherent risks and uncertainties. The actual results may deviate from the envisaged outcomes due to various factors, including but not limited to the actions of our suppliers and business partners, the market appetite for certain materials and the availability of end-of-life options. In addition, BioPak relies, either wholly or partially, on publicly available information and data provided by our suppliers and business partners. Further, our ability to verify such information (whether now, in the past, or in the future) may be limited by the integrity of the underlying data available at the relevant point in time and the status and evolution of global, supranational and national laws, guidelines and regulations in relation to the tracking and provision of such data.