Raising the bar: how Amcor’s work with Delterra is transforming waste management in Argentina

Martin, you work as the director of Business Development & Sustainability in Amcor’s rigids packaging business in Argentina – tell us a little bit about your role.
Martin: I work with, and develop, strategic customer relationships to expand Amcor into high-growth segments. This is very much the business development part of my role, but I’m also focused on developing Amcor’s sustainability actions. As part of this sustainability work, I participate as a member of the Board of Directors of non-profit Ecoplas, and have led Amcor’s partnership with Delterra, a non-governmental organization on a mission to redesign waste management systems to reduce waste and improve outcomes for people and the planet. Our work supporting Delterra’s GIRO (Gestión Integral de Residuos de Olavarría) waste management program has been transformational for the city of Olavarria in Argentina, so it’s something I’m particularly proud of.

So what does your sustainability work at Amcor consist of? What are your strategic priorities and how is Amcor progressing against these?
Martin: Our sustainability commitments revolve around three strategic objectives. Our primary goal is to improve collection rates for recyclable materials and ensure that packaging, once used, gets looped back into the circular economy. Second, we raise awareness of environmental issues among key stakeholders, whether suppliers, customers or consumers, in the markets in which we operate. Our third key aim relates to our decarbonization efforts and reducing the greenhouse gas emissions of our operations and products, including not only the use of renewable energy, but also increasing our use of recycled content with a lower carbon footprint.

To make progress against these strategic priorities, we’re taking action through product innovation and upgrades to our operations, like our rigids plant in Pilar, Argentina, which has run on 100% renewable energy since last year. Our partnerships are also crucial to our work. Our collaboration with Delterra is ground-breaking, critical to increasing recycling rates and supporting the circular economy for example, while Amcor’s engagement with EcoPlus provides education about environmental issues across Argentina. Taken as a whole, we’re doing a lot to push sustainability forward.

Delterra is one of Amcor’s global sustainability partners. Can you talk us through Amcor’s involvement in Delterra’s work?
Martin: Delterra’s projects are particularly ambitious. Delterra is an NGO looking to scale waste management infrastructure in the Global South to create a positive social and environmental impact, and we’ve been actively supporting them since 2018. At first, this meant accompanying them not only to visit our main customers, but also to cities in Argentina to convince local authorities about the importance of their project. Delterra had a first pilot in a low-income neighborhood of Buenos Aires covering about 40,000 inhabitants, which created new sorting, composting, recycling and waste infrastructure. It was a highly successful pilot that saw the neighborhood’s collection rates catch up with the rest of Buenos Aires. After this, Delterra handed the program’s administration over to the city and turned its attention to a new project in Olavarria, a city of 120,000 people, also in Argentina.

This is where we really stepped up Amcor’s involvement, bringing our expertise and relationships to bear across the value chain in order to resource, administer and manage the project and build new sorting, composting, recycling and waste management infrastructure. The project has been extremely successful to date and Delterra is now in the third and final phase of its Olavarria project, which aims to provide all inhabitants of the city with best-in-class waste management infrastructure. Olavarria now has a recycling rate of around 50%, which is high by global standards, and illustrates how well residents have taken to participating in the program. It really shows the difference that collaboration on waste management infrastructure and consumer education and participation in recycling can have, and this is incredibly encouraging.

Looking to the future, Delterra has now signed contracts to develop waste management infrastructure in 10 other cities in Argentina, encompassing 8 million people (around 20% of the country’s population). In May, we announced an extension of our partnership with Delterra to new programs being rolled out in Brazil — so watch this space!

Delterra’s projects are clearly having a huge impact and are game changers for local environments and communities. You must feel passionate about such work.
Martin: Absolutely. Working with Delterra has been very fulfilling for me, both personally and professionally. I deeply believe that such collaboration is critical, allowing us to comprehensively tackle waste to protect the environment, while also addressing social issues thanks to the new jobs created in local communities. Delterra’s approach is also holistic — increasing recycling rates isn’t just about reducing waste in the environment, it’s also about securing new materials for the circular economy that have a lower carbon footprint. Taken together, through this work we’ve been able to not only integrate waste management into local communities but also enhance the quality of life for residents. Witnessing this positive impact inspires me and only strengthens my resolve to keep driving progress in Amcor’s sustainability work. The fact that the projects we’ve been involved with have taken place in my home country of Argentina adds a further dimension. I’m very proud of the positive impact we’ve had.

The Delterra partnership aside, do you have another message you’d like to convey?
Martin: Yes, and it has to do with Amcor’s position. We are leaders in the packaging industry, so I like to think we have a unique responsibility and role to play in pushing sustainability across the packaging sector. We must continue our efforts and lead the way in promoting circularity, tackling waste and decarbonizing.

Our goal remains to design, develop and communicate packaging solutions that will improve quality of life for future generations as well as today’s consumers. It’s about inspiring ourselves and others to go further and create lasting change.