Buying Recycled
Foster's Group was a founding member of Australia's Buy Recycled Business Alliance (BRBA). The BRBA now has more than 30 business members working to increase the purchase and use of recycled content products and materials.
With a combined purchasing power of $30 billion, the Alliance has enormous potential to stimulate the market for recycled materials and create a successful recycling loop. Core to our membership of the BRBA is our purchasing policy which requires that when choosing between products of equivalent quality and cost, Foster's Group must give preference to those products which contain recycled material.
Post Consumer Recycling
To contribute towards better resource efficiency and less litter, Foster's Group is committed to achieving maximum recycling rates of post- consumer bottles and cans.
Foster's Group has been a member of the Packaging Stewardship Forum (PSF) and its predecessor organisation, the Beverage Industry Environment Council, for over 25 years. An industry association of companies including Australian beer and soft drink fillers as well as the suppliers of beverage containers, the PSF aims to achieve measurable environmental improvements in post-consumer packaging.
The "Do The Right Thing" and current "Don't Waste Australia" anti-litter campaigns were both PSF initiatives, and it has been a strong supporter of Keep Australia Beautiful and its Tidy Towns competitions for many years.
Other environmental activities which we have undertaken through the PSF have included:
Maximising Internal Recycling
Maximising the recovery and recycling of materials in our manufacturing processes is a major part of our Cleaner Production focus. Extensive non-manufacturing recycling activities also take place in our wineries, breweries and offices.
Foster's Group employees recycle paper, pallets, glass bottles, obsolete computers, slipsheets, aluminium cans, toner cartridges, rechargeable batteries, PET bottles, beverage containers, ferrous metals, PET strapping, cardboard cartons, plastic drums, non-ferrous metals, stretch and shrink wrap, lamps (fluorescent, mercury, sodium), mobile phones and their batteries.
While measurement of the quantities of materials recycled is difficult, we can ensure that the activity occurs through audits and internal benchmarking target application of uniform recycling practices throughout the business.
