(l to r) Brendan Low, Nicola Andrews, Simone Ting (back), Amy Guan, Melissa Denham,
Nina Leatherday, ​Eurika Duvel and Hiral Dattani​

Kimberly-Clark Australia has been recognised as a “High Performer” by the Australian Packaging Covenant (APC), at a ceremony held yesterday at the Establishment Hotel in Sydney, following the recent submission of KCA’s packaging and sustainability report.

Kimberly-Clark is a signatory to the APC, a sustainable packaging initiative which aims to change the culture of business to design more sustainable packaging, increase recycling rates and reduce packaging litter.

A requirement of KCA’s membership with the APC is that the organisation report annually on packaging sustainability initiatives and achievements. The report is then reviewed by the APC, and this year KCA have been recognised as one of the top performers, receiving a high score of 4.2/5 on the report – the highest score KCA has received in the past 5 years. The key achievements highlighted in the report include:

• Collaborating with K-C Australian mills to reduce packaging materials from the supply chain. Two key examples of this include the wrap around shipper project at Ingleburn, initiated in 2015, which will result in improved palletisation and reduced material usage for nappy products. And at Millicent, KCA has eliminated approximately 68,000kg of poly film annually by shifting from poly bundles to retail bundles for several codes.
• ​The transition of Poise Active Microliners from a carton to a poly bag, which resulted in a 93% reduction in packaging weight and a 46% improvement in palletisation.
• Various packaging quality improvements, which have decreased damage and waste throughout the supply chain
• Continued partnership with Red Cycle, an organisation that provides consumers with a recycling solution for flexible films which are not widely accepted through traditional recycling streams.
• ​Ongoing work with main packaging suppliers to investigate, identify and implement improvements to KCA product packaging

As well as receiving recognition for KCA’s fantastic results, the event also provided a chance for
signatories to come together, share insight and participate in a dialogue about sustainable packaging via panel conversations with high performing signatories.

Kimberly-Clark Australia endeavours to continue working closely with mills and stakeholders to achieve great results.