Australian Marine Conservation Society, Plastic Free Foundation and WWF-Australia MEDIA RELEASE
- THE GOOD: Reusable milk keg system that has cut the need for 4.5 million single-use plastic milk bottles so far - important now as plastic costs escalate
- THE BAD: Cafes' plastic/metal hybrid "can" for iced drinks is everything wrong with packaging
- Australia needs national packaging laws to curb the scourge of needless plastic packaging that pollutes our environment
- Plastic pollution threatens our ocean, marine life and even human health
The inaugural Unpackit Awards shine a light on the thousands of tonnes of needless plastic packaging that gets thrown away every year - and acknowledge the outstanding ideas to address the growing plastic pollution crisis that's impacting our ocean.
The Australian Marine Conservation Society (AMCS) started the awards with the Plastic Free Foundation (PFF) and WWF-Australia to find the best and worst of packaging. We received hundreds of public nominations, which were whittled down by a panel of experts judging on environmental concerns. Independent MPs Sophie Scamps, Kate Chaney and Allegra Spender announced the Unpackit Awards winners in Canberra this morning.
The inaugural Unpackit Award for Australia's Worst Packaging goes to the latest trendy drinking vessel - a plastic/metal hybrid "can" that cafes are using to serve their iced drinks, the franken-child of a pot plant and a beer can. Your iced macha latte is made in the thick plastic cup, then an aluminium top is welded to the cup, making it disposable after a single use - not acceptable for container refund schemes and not easily recycled.
Dishonourable mentions go to Mentos for its individually wrapped branded mints that litter the Australian landscape; Coles, Woolworths and Aldi for wrapping avocados in unnecessary plastic netting that sheds microplastics easily; and Kmart for wrapping dumbbell weights individually in plastic in its Anko dumbbell set carry case.
The Unpackit Award for Australia's Best Packaging goes to The Udder Way refillable milk kegs that have slashed the need for 4.5 million single-use plastic milk bottles since 2021. The 18-litre milk keg works just like a beer keg, but instead baristas draw milk straight from the keg. Once the keg is empty, it's sent back to the dairy to get cleaned, refilled and returned. It's now being rolled out in some supermarkets so customers can refill their own reusable milk bottles.
Honourable mentions to Bearhug for its reusable pallet wrap system that saves tonnes of single-use plastic cling wrap used to secure goods on transport pallets; and Cercle for its cafe-based reusable coffee cup system that's slashing demand for disposable takeaway cups.
AMCS Plastics Campaigns Manager Cip Hamilton said: "The Unpackit Award for Australia's Worst Packaging goes to the completely unnecessary plastic/metal hybrid 'can' used by cafes to serve iced beverages.
"These franken-cans tick every box for problematic packaging - they're made for single use, built for on-the-go consumption and likely to end up as street litter, are not accepted by container refund schemes and almost impossible to recycle. Some cafes are even using the 'filled-on-site can' instead of traditional reusable glasses and cups for dine-in customers. One nominator called them unnecessary and a bad attempt to make single use cool.
"They're so bad that some state governments have already taken steps to ban them, but state-by-state bans will always be one step behind the next branding trend, playing endless whack-a-mole against a rising tide of plastic overproduction. This is exactly the gap that national packaging laws must close.
"The Albanese Government promised in 2022 to deliver much-needed national packaging laws. Four years on, it's imperative the Albanese Government introduce new national packaging laws that support reuse, ban wasteful packaging, and include a mandatory extended producer responsibility scheme.
"The overproduction of plastic is one of the greatest threats to our coasts and ocean - plastics entangle, starve, smother and poison marine life and harm their habitats. Plastics are increasingly linked with human health concerns.
"With all of the nominations we received, it became obvious that Australians have had a gutful of unavoidable and unnecessary packaging, especially single-use plastic packaging. A YouGov poll last month found nine in 10 voters from across the political spectrum think Australia should reduce its reliance on imported single-use plastic packaging materials."*
WWF-Australia's No Plastic in Nature Policy Manager, Malene Hand, said: "We know the best way to reduce plastic pollution is to reduce plastic production.
"Our best packaging winner, The Udder Way, is a brilliantly simple alternative to single-use plastic milk bottles. The idea came from Tasmanian cafe owner Ed Crick, who was tired of seeing plastic milk bottles piling up at his cafe every day.
"The Udder Way's reusable kegs are designed to fit into existing delivery trucks and cool rooms. The keg saves nine plastic milk bottles with every use and has replaced an estimated 4.5 million bottles and more than 246,000 kilograms of plastic waste since 2021.
"This success story shows we have the solutions to beat plastic pollution - what's missing is the government support to scale them up."
Plastic Free Foundation Executive Director Rebecca Prince Ruiz OAM said: "We gave an honourable mention for good packaging to Bearhug for its reusable pallet wrap system that reduces one of the biggest, yet elusive, sources of unnecessary plastic packaging - the miles and miles of cling wrap used to secure goods on pallets for transport. One Bearhug reusable pallet wrap displaces 350kg of single-use plastic over its lifetime. Another winner is Cercle for its cafe-based reusable steel coffee cup that makes reuse the default, not the exception, for takeaway coffees. Cercle says it has eliminated more than 1.5 million single-use cups.
"The good packaging award winners are just a small sample of Australian-made solutions that are already out there to address the overproduction and overuse of packaging. The only thing standing between where we are and where we need to be is the national packaging laws to support scaling these solutions."
The Unpackit Awards winners were announced in Canberra this morning by independent MPs Sophie Scamps, Allegra Spender and Kate Chaney.
* Polling conducted by YouGov poll of 1501 Australian voters on 5-12 May 2026.
