By “empty”, the ABS mean packaging that has been converted but not yet filled with any product

An ABS spokeman said, “As an example, we are interested not in how many tins of tomatoes are imported into Australia, but rather how many empty tins are imported. Nor are we interested in the amount of raw material imported into Australia for conversion into packaging,” a spokesman said. “We are, however, interested in some of the following: plastic supermarket shopping bags, folding cartons, cartons made out of corrugated material such as pizza boxes, glass jars, wine bottles, beer bottles and beverage containers.”

Some of the ABS findings on annual imports of empty packaging:

Folding cartons: About 5.5 million kilograms of folding cartons, boxes and cases of non-corrugated paper or paperboard were imported into Australia. The principle sources of supply were China (2,4million kg), Taiwan (800,000kg), Hong Kong (400.000kg), Indonesia (200.000kg) and Malaysia (181,000kg).

Corrugated: A total of 5.7 million kilograms of cartons, boxes and cases of corrugated paper or paperboard , mainly from China (1,6 million kg), Malaysia (1.1million kg), Indonesia (450,000kg), Hong Kong (260,000kg), Taiwan (195,000kg) and India (182,000kg).

Plastic Sacks and Bags: More 92 million kilograms were imported, mainly from China, Malaysia and Thailand.

Glass: A total of 371 million glass bottles (excluding wine and beer) were imported, with the major suppliers being China, France, Indonesia, Italy, Saudi Arabia and the UAE; while 102 million glass jars were imported (China, Indonesia, Philippines, Saudi Arabia and Taiwan).

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