#23 How to reduce your packaging impact with the future in mind with Jason Goode.

Introduction Welcome to Episode 23 of the Enterprise Excellence Podcast.  As we know packaging is a major challenge in our world. Jason has dedicated his career to improving packaging and reducing the impact it has on our world. It has a major carbon footprint, is a major pollutent and is contributing to challenges now and for our future generations.  Jason has worked for a number of our largest organisations and is also a director of APCO, the Australian Packaging Covenant. SummaryThere is currently an estimated 20-30% global food production wastage, with current land use. Considering this, we may be able to feed 30% more of the world's population without increasing land production and use, provided quality of food is guaranteed. How can we save that estimated waste to feed the world's population? Consumers also need to understand how to check their food quality. Use-bys and best before on labels help, as well as newer advancements in food spoilage technology. Anyone looking to do more about packaging improvement (we all need to!) should focus firstly on education and learning. Jason spoke about this initial challenge - how to educate consumers. The Australian Recycling Label (ARL) has significantly helped with this. Clear symbols on labels inform consumers where to dispose of each piece of packaging included in/on their purchased item. When we are looking at a package, and standing in front of a bin, how can we ensure we choose the correct disposal system? The label is straightforward to follow! My family use it all of the time.Jason talks about the circular economy. How do we enable consumers to identify products made from recycled materials and give them a choice? To use virgin materials, or choose the recycled counterpart, and understand why they made that choice. The recycling capacity in Australia needs to be dramatically scaled to compete with virgin material manufacturing. What is the benefit? That we create a society that is sustainable and does not exploit the infinite resources of this planet. There is not an endless resource, so we cannot continue to increase our consumption.There is no effort that is too small. Every person and every company has the responsibility to improve and adapt to change. Collective action drives change: consistent messages and standardised approaches.There are excellent resources available to help us re-educate and change our habits:APCO (join their newsletter) https://apco.org.au/ Australian Institute of Packaging http://aipack.com.auPlanet Ark https://planetark.orgTerracycle https://www.terracycle.com/en-AU/Quotes25:48min we've only got one planet at the moment, and we can't continue to dig holes in it. Well, we can. It's not infinite; it's as simple as that. So, the benefit is that we create a society that is living within it's means. So we're not over-exploiting the resources that we have at hand. We're actually regenerating what we consume.37:08min So, I think a real enabler, to help industry achieve our goals quickly is by standardising how we capture the information to make it simple. Not just for the companies who are manufacturing the packaging, but the ones who are buying and filling the packaging, through to the recycling centres as to how they're recycling them. We need consistency in this, and that's not an Australian thing.Key Takeaways Considering all the aspects of packaging. To learn more about what we do, visit https://enterpriseexcellencegroup.com.au/Thanks for your time, and thanks for helping to create a better future.