News
Planet Ark celebrates World Environment Day with new partnership with Coles
By Liam Taylor 5 June 2023
Partnership will see the two organisations work together on a range of waste reduction and recycling initiatives.
Planet Ark is thrilled to mark World Environment Day by announcing a new three-year partnership with one of Australia’s biggest retailers, a collaboration that will focus on reducing food and packaging waste and tackling the challenges of plastic waste and recycling.
The alliance will see Planet Ark provide support for Coles’ existing sustainability efforts as well as working closely with the retailer on new waste reduction and recycling initiatives aimed at helping customers reduce their environmental footprint, including during National Recycling Week and the Schools Recycle Right Challenge later this year.
“Planet Ark is thrilled to be joining forces with Coles as an official community partner, a collaboration that will help to amplify our positive environmental impact throughout Australia as well as bring about lasting positive change for Coles customers and our shared environment,” said Planet Ark CEO Rebecca Gilling.
“By committing to 100% renewable energy by 2025, pioneering initiatives to combat unnecessary packaging, and championing the Australasian Recycling Label, Coles has firmly established itself as a leader in driving positive environmental transformation.
“We look forward to working together to accelerate this ongoing transition to a circular economy and elevate Coles’ leadership in sustainability to new heights,” she said.
The partnership announcement comes with the news Coles has successfully added the Australasian Recycle Label (ARL) to all its Own Brand products1. The ARL provides Australians with easy-to-understand recycling information that helps to remove confusion at the recycling bin, save time for users and reduce the amount of waste going to landfill.
Commenting on the announcement, Coles General Manager, Sustainability, Brooke Donnelly, said the retailer is proud be partnering with Australia’s leading environmental behaviour change organisations to help drive Australia’s transition to a circular economy.
“We are pleased to partner with Planet Ark to help accelerate action on reducing waste, and to support our customers to make sustainable choices in their everyday lives,” said Brooke.
“Through this partnership, we can significantly assist Planet Ark to boost its program of work, including delivering additional campaigns, events and resources, with the overall aim of driving positive environmental change.
“We understand for many consumers recycling can be confusing, but we’re confident that through this partnership and the work we are doing at Coles to make packaging more reusable, recyclable, and compostable, we can help build trust and understanding for this important process,” she said.
Recently Coles also announced it will phase out soft plastic shopping bags both in-store and online by the end of June, a move that will remove 230 million plastic bags from circulation in one year2. In addition, the retailer has set a target of 100% reusable, recyclable or compostable packaging by 2025.
Watch this space as we work together with Coles to provide positive environmental outcomes for all.
1. To avoid waste, some items without the ARL may still appear in stores until sold
2. Based on unit sales over 52 week period until 30/04/2023
Prior to joining Planet Ark Liam spent his time studying global environmental issues, travelling Southeast Asia on the cheap and working for a sustainable property management company in Bali, Indonesia. Joining the communications team at Planet Ark, he hopes to inspire positive environmental behaviour through effective and positive messaging.
