What’s the issue?

Packaging plays an important role to protect and transport the products we buy. However, packaging that is unable to be recycled contributes to waste that is sent to landfill.

Every day, more and more innovative and sustainable packaging solutions are becoming available which give consumers a better experience by enabling them to easily recycle their packaging, avoiding the need for packaging waste to be sent to landfill.

What are we doing?

With almost 40,000 products available for sale at Officeworks, we take a holistic approach to reduce environmental impacts caused by product packaging by working with all our suppliers. Our Sustainable Packaging Policy outlines the expectations for our suppliers to follow, and product packaging reviews are integrated into our category range review process to identify packaging improvements. With over 6,400 own-brand products available, our initial priority is to ensure the packaging on these products is recyclable or reusable. As of June 30 2021, 97 per cent of our own-brand products meet this criteria.

During the year, we also continued to look at ways to reduce unnecessary plastic packaging and transition to plastic-free packaging where possible. By working with our suppliers, we implemented solutions to avoid the annual equivalent of 6.7 million pieces of plastic, across both primary and secondary packaging. Additionally, this year we achieved the milestone of removing polystyrene from all our own-brand products and have begun working with national and international branded suppliers to do the same.

In 2016, we partnered with Planet Ark to develop the Australasian Recycling Label, which we have widely adopted on our own-brand products. The packaging recyclability assessment is integrated into how we source, design and review product packaging, with the label featuring on almost 5,000 of our own-brand products. This process helps us design more sustainable packaging and the label helps our customers recycle right.

Focus for FY2022

We are working to ensure the packaging on our own-brand products will be recyclable by December 2021. We will continue to collaborate with all suppliers to encourage them to design packaging that is recyclable and implement further solutions to reduce our reliance on plastic packaging. We will continue to explore ways that packaging used for our online deliveries can be optimised, reducing unnecessary materials, and exploring ways we can provide deliveries to our stores and customers in reusable options.

Learn more about another 2025 commitment