Packaging · Regulation
The Senate committee examining the No Time to Waste EPR bill reports on 6 August. The bill would start a mandatory national packaging scheme within months of assent; the environment department's own consultation shows 65 per cent of respondents back mandatory EPR, and APCO, which has run the voluntary covenant since 2018, now publicly advocates mandatory settings too.
Packaging · Regulation
The government's kerbside recyclability framework gives every pack a single grade from A to G, across five material types, and it scores the things a printer controls: material, inks, adhesives and labels. In stakeholder engagement through 2026, no decision yet on whether it becomes regulation.
Packaging · Leadership
The covenant body loses chief executive Chris Foley at the end of November, right as the Senate EPR inquiry reports on 6 August. The board says strategy and its positions before government are unchanged; the continuity plan is the part that matters to packaging suppliers.
Sustainability · Data
All four National Packaging Targets were missed at their 2025 due date, on APCO's own data. The recovery rates that matter to printers and converters, material by material, charted from the primary documents.
Paper and substrates
The FSC trademark standard changed on 1 July; the Responsible Wood standard is open for comment until 7 August. The reference page, with the live deadlines up top.
ProcessesProcesses
Plates, blankets, make-ready, and the automation built to hit ISO 12647-2.
Processes
The heaviest ink film in the trade, and the water-based range made in Brookvale.
Trade community
Penrith's working museum, Melbourne's dispersed collection, and the craft that still bills.
Colour and standardsStandards and colour
Measured colour, register, honest proofing: the checklist, with the standards behind it.
Standards and colour
Spot inks versus CMYK-OGV, how G7 relates to ISO 12647-2, and why Hexachrome should leave your vocabulary.
Standards and colour
Which requirements are real standards and which are conventions, labelled honestly, with a glossary.
Materials and finishesFinishes
What each finish physically is, the tooling economics, and when it is overkill.
Processes
The chemistry behind the effects, the Australian-made options, and the compliance questions.
Packaging and businessPackaging
The ABS numbers behind the unboxing trend, and the compliance layer a small brand inherits with its first box.
Business of print
Why the same job is $180 at one shop and $600 at another: the fixed-cost anatomy of a quote, and what cheap online printing trades away.
Business of print
The cheapest premium object a business can hand over, and the size standard that only covers the plastic ones.
