The Australian Food & Grocery Council (AFGC) has appointed Thrive PR + Communications as its exclusive PR, content and digital agency to raise awareness and endorsement of a new industry-led plastics recycling program, The National Plastics Recycling Scheme (NPRS), as part of a competitive pitch.
The NPRS is an initiative that is aimed at taking hard-to-recycle soft plastic packaging out of waste streams at the kerbside, to give it new life as recycled food-grade packaging.
The engagement will see Thrive support the AFGC across the full spectrum of integrated communications services including corporate and industry communications, consumer brand storytelling, member, co-worker and internal communications, stakeholder engagement, content development and government relations and lobbying services, as the NPRS continues to scale.
Scott McGrath, director, government and media relations at the Australian Food & Grocery Council said the recent collapse of the REDcycle return-to-store soft plastics recycling scheme had placed the Australian advanced recycling industry under greater scrutiny in recent months:
“The REDcycle scheme was ambitious and well-intended, but the initiative relied heavily on the public’s willingness to return their soft plastics waste to store, and at its peak was only capturing roughly two to four percent of soft plastics recycling in circulation. We know the NPRS is a better solution.
Thrive’s proven experience across both corporate and consumer communications made them an obvious partner to help us navigate a challenging stakeholder and media environment that historically had been apathetic to the soft plastics industry. Since commencing our partnership in April, Thrive has been the professional and creative backbone of this project. Their credentials in crisis communications and media management were evident from the get go, but it is their creativity, enthusiasm, expert counsel and understanding of the highly complex sustainability, packaging and product stewardship arenas that has kept us going forward.”
Leilani Abels, Thrive founder and chief executive officer, said this new partnership reflected Thrive’s reputation in delivering communications excellence in the business, purpose and sustainability territories:
“Sustainability is a core focus of our Business and Purpose division and we remain committed to delivering meaningful, purposeful work to drive this important message forward through impactful multi-channel communications.
The National Plastics Recycling Scheme is a bold and ambitious initiative that will enact real change to improve environmental outcomes for people, planet and communities, and we are privileged to support the Australian Food & Grocery Council and its members to deliver against these goals, support the scheme’s expansion and be limited by nothing in doing so.”