AUSTRALIAN INSTITUTE OF PACKAGING

AIP releases findings from 2021 Salary Survey

The AIP has completed the first Australasian Salary Survey. Although there are some brights sports, work still needs to be done on some aspects of the industry. Food & Beverage Industry News reports.

Author Nerida Kelton MAIP, Executive Director – AIP, Vice President – Sustainability & Save Food

The AIP has released the key findings from the 2021 Salary Survey which is a first-of-itskind for the Australasian Region.

The AIP 2021 Salary Survey report was developed in partnership with the IoPP, to provide a more detailed breakdown of the people who make up the industry including their roles, education, experience, career satisfaction, concerns and salaries. Some of the findings that stood out were how wellqualified packaging professionals are in our region with 46 per cent of the total respondents having a Postgraduate Degree, how 34.20 per cent have more than 20 years’ experience in the industry and how, even during a Pandemic 41.30 per cent were very secure in their job and 27.50 per cent were somewhat secure.

Even though the data indicates that we have well qualified professionals in the industry we still have a limited amount who are qualified in the science, engineering or technology of packaging.

The Australasian region needs to see more people working in the packaging industry undertaking degrees such as the Diploma in Packaging Technology, the Certificate in Packaging, the Fundamentals in Packaging Technology and the Master of Food & Packaging Innovation.

Having a degree in the science of packaging and understanding the fundamentals of packaging will go a long way in improving the overall knowledge and skill sets available to ensure that we do not have a technical knowledge void within the industry in the next 5-10 years.

Not only do we need to encourage more people in the industry to advance their technical skills in packaging, but we also need to see professionals that have worked hard to attain a packaging-related degree to be recognised and hired for their expertise.

The AIP would love to see more HR departments and job placement companies actively recognising packaging degrees and the Certified Packaging Professional (CPP) designation in their position descriptions when hiring packaging technologists and designers, as their technical knowledge is invaluable.

Experience

• 34.20 per cent of the total respondents have more than 20 years’ experience in the packaging industry. This is an indication of longevity in the industry and stable careers. • There is an increasing amount of people in the industry that have up to 10 years’ experience, which shows that there is a continued opportunity for newcomers to the industry to establish strong careers. Education

• 46 per cent of the total respondents have extremely high educational qualifications including postgraduate degrees. • 21 per cent of the respondents have an undergraduate degree.

Job Function

• 25.20 per cent of the respondents indicated that they work in packaging technology/design. • This was followed closely by marketing/sales at 24.40 per cent

Industry/products

• 47 per cent of respondents work in food followed by 13 per cent in the beverage industry. • 11 per cent indicated that they work in packaging materials.

Career satisfaction

What is the one thing that keeps you awake at night regarding job security? • The impact of COVID-19 on my job • Lockdowns and current working conditions • Redundancy/job and business insecurity • My company not moving towards the 2025 national packaging targets • Plastics ban • Negativity around packaging and plastics • Lack of career progression • High expectations and tight deadlines

Satisfaction with job security

• 41.30 per cent of the respondents were very secure with their job, while 27.50 per cent were

‘somewhat secure’. F

AFGC and food and grocery manufacturers packaging up a solution to plastic waste

Australia’s food and grocery manufacturing industry has come together to develop the country’s first recycling scheme for soft plastics. Food & Beverage Industry News explains how.

Plastic packaging has an important role in the industry and recycling is the key to its continued success.

Each year Australia uses around one million tonnes of plastic packaging but only a small part – 16 per cent in 2017/18 - is recycled. That represents not only a lot of landfill but also the loss of a potentially valuable resource. Now the nation’s food and grocery manufacturing industry is driving the development of Australia’s first nationwide recycling scheme for soft plastics and there are big changes ahead for how plastic is used and reused.

Plastic packaging has an important role in the daily lives of consumers – it keeps food fresh, reduces food waste and helps keep products intact. And while most plastic packaging is not recycled at present, two-thirds of it is recyclable according to the Australian Packaging Covenant Organisation’s (APCO) 2018/19 figures. The 2018 National Waste Report, produced by the federal government, found plastic is the most poorly recovered material of any household waste.

In November 2020, the Australian Food and Grocery Council was awarded a grant of almost $1 million by the federal government to develop the National Plastics Recycling Scheme (NPRS). Work is now under way on developing the country’s first nationwide, industry-led recycling scheme for soft plastics. Because it is an industry-led and funded scheme, it means it has the support of Australia’s biggest food and grocery brands.

The NPRS will focus initially on the diversion of soft plastics from landfill. This means improving the collection of items such as bread, cereal and frozen vegetable bags, confectionery wrappers and toilet paper wrapping that end up in landfill. These kinds of flexible plastic packaging make up about one third of all plastic packaging but APCO data shows that the recovery rate for “flexibles” was only around six per cent in 2017/18.

Getting the collection side right will be a vital first step towards building a genuine circular economy for plastics in Australia. There are already some brand owner-funded collection schemes in operation, such as the REDcycle program, which allows consumers to return soft plastics via collection bins at supermarkets, and the Curby Bag trial conducted by Nestle, iQRenew and Central Coast Council in NSW. The NPRS will build and add scale to the initiatives already in the market to create a coordinated, national approach. This will assist industry in reaching the 2025 National Packaging Targets. Established with the support of industry and the federal government, the targets aim to achieve 100 per cent reusable, recyclable or compostable packaging by 2025, have 70 per cent of plastic packaging being recycled or composted, use an average 50 per cent recycled content in packaging and phase out problematic and unnecessary singleuse plastic packaging.

The NPRS aims to reduce by one third the amount of plastic waste that goes to landfill each year.

The second phase of the NPRS will be ensuring a consistent, clean stream of recyclable product that will increase the availability of food-grade, quality recycled plastic packaging for use by food and grocery manufacturers in Australia. Demand for recycled content already exists: data from APCO shows the usage of post-industrial and postconsumer recycled content already exceeds the current recycling rate from kerbside collection. Having access to high-quality material is key to increasing the use of food grade postconsumer recycled packaging.

The AFGC has formed several advisory panels to help shape the NPRS and is working on assessment of various collection and recycling options. With the final design of the NPRS to be ready by early 2023, the AFGC team is also looking around the world and assessing numerous product stewardship schemes to ensure the scheme developed for Australia reflects global best practice. F