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APCO Australian Packaging Consumption and Recovery Data 2023-24

Monday 01 December 2025


The Australian Packaging Covenant Organisation (APCO) today released its 2023-24 Australian Packaging Consumption and Recovery Data Report.


The latest results against the Targets include: 


  • Target 1: 100% reusable, recyclable or compostable packaging.  

Result: The proportion of recyclable packaging increased from 84% to 86%.   


  • Target 2: 70% of plastic packaging being recycled or composted.  

Result: The plastic recycling rate decreased from 20% to 19%.  


  • Target 3: 50% of average post-consumer recycled content included in packaging.  

Result: The average recycled content increased from 40% to 44%.  


  • Target 4: The phase-out of problematic and unnecessary single-use plastic packaging.  

Result: This has been reduced by 40% from the 2017-18 baseline. 


This report is a critical tool for industry and brand owners to understand where Australia sits on its journey to achieving a circular economy for packaging, what the challenges are and what action is needed to get there. 


Report highlights 

  • In 2022-23, half of all glass placed on the market was from post-consumer recycled content, making it the first material group to meet the material-specific target for post-consumer recycled content.   
  • The average Australian consumer uses 146kg of packaging per year, with 111kg consumed in the home and 35kg consumed away from home. Business to business consumption (116kg/person) and other/unknown consumption (2kg/person) takes total consumption 264kg per capita.  
  • Domestic reprocessing capacity has nearly doubled since 2018-19, from 1.85MT to 3.45MT. 
  • Paper and Paperboard represents over 50% of all packaging placed on market and has a high recovery rate of 65%. Even so, more remains to be done, as there are still 1.3 million tonnes of this valuable material going to landfill.  
  • Container Deposit Scheme recovery via depots and reverse vending machines have almost doubled between 2018-19 and 2022-23 across the country. 
  • Some problematic and single-use plastics have almost disappeared from Australian packaging, with 31,000 tonnes of single-use HDPE shopping bags being almost entirely eliminated, PVC halving from 20,000 tonnes to 10,000 tonnes, and 1,500 tonnes of oxo-degradable plastics being reduced to almost 0.   

 

Material highlights:  

  • Paper and paperboard: Despite 94% of paper and paperboard packaging POM receiving a “good recycling potential” rating, only 66% of paper and paperboard was recovered throughout 2023-24. This is a slight increase on the 2022-23 recovery rate of 65%. Read more.
  • Rigid plastics: Post-consumer recycled content has grown from 14% to 16% (as a proportion of POM), with an additional 19,965 tonnes of post-consumer recycled content used vs 2022-23 levels. However, while close to three quarters (73%) of rigid plastics are classified as having good recycling potential, only 28% of rigid plastic was recovered throughout 2023-24. Read more.
  • Flexible plastics: Low domestic reprocessing capacity for flexible plastic content limit the uptake of domestic recycled content in new flexible plastic packaging placed on market. Over the next 5 years, flexible plastic reprocessing capacity is projected to increase by 382,093 tonnes, bringing reprocessing capacity to 70% of POM in 2028-29, compared to just 7% in 2023-24. Read more.
  • Glass: Glass is the first material to reach its material-specific recycled content National Packaging Target, with post-consumer recycled content rates in glass improving from 50% in 2022-23 to 54% in 2023-24.In 2023-24 reported glass reprocessing capacity is higher than glass packaging POM for the first time since reporting began in 2018-19. Read more.
  • Metal: Metal recovery has improved slightly between 2022-23 (52%) and 2023-24 (55%), but still remains lower than the 56% recovery rate in 2018-19. Read more.
  • Wood: Wood recovery has increased, with 58% of wood packaging POM recovered in 2023-24, up from 51% in the previous year. Across material subcategories, recovery is greatly varied, with the highest recovery rates in hardwood (70%) and softwood (63%) packaging, with lower collection in fibreboard packaging (2%). Read more.

Read the full Consumption and Recovery report here.


Read the Material Factsheets Summary here.