At Coles, we think about circularity as minimising waste and making the most of resources by keeping materials in use for longer. We seek to do this through innovative packaging, smarter product design, recycling and finding new ways to re-use materials through effective product stewardship.
Our approach and targets
We seek to apply the Australian Circular Economy Framework’s circular economy principles where possible across product design, operations and partnerships, moving beyond traditional waste management.
For packaging, our priority is to avoid and reduce unnecessary packaging, while improving reuse, recyclability and recycled content, reducing the amount of virgin material used. We recognise that recycling alone will not deliver a circular economy, and that strong end markets are needed to support the recovery and reprocessing of packaging into new materials and products.
Our progress depends on effective waste management across our operations (especially our stores and distribution centres), positive collaboration with our suppliers and well-managed industry stewardship programs. Our progress also relies on the availability of industry recycling infrastructure, processing capacity and customer participation.
Our Circularity targets include:
- Maintain greater than 85% diversion of the Group’s solid waste1 from landfill.
- Deliver average of 30% recycled content in eligible packaging2 by the end of FY30.
- Continue to phase out problematic and unnecessary eligible single-use plastic packaging by the end of FY30.
- Achieve greater than 85% of eligible packaging being reusable and/or recyclable by the end of FY30.
1 Excludes liquid waste except high-strength sludges (which contain a high proportion of solids) and liquids diverted for use as food (such as donations to SecondBite and farmers).
2 Eligible packaging is defined as all of Coles Own Brand product packaging and Coles Liquor Own Brand packaging.
