You might not pay any attention to the box your new kettle arrived in, and toss it in the recycling bin without a second thought.

But packaging can have a long-lasting effect on the environment.

Consumer group Choice examined the packaging materials that accompany some of Australia’s most popular appliances to find out which products have the best and worst packaging sustainability. 

The results show while some manufacturers use recyclable cardboard and fibre in their packaging, others are still using blocks of polystyrene and other non-recyclable plastic materials.

The findings come after Clean Up Australia’s 2022 National Rubbish Report showed of the 366,144 pieces of rubbish picked up by the organisation’s volunteers, 63 per cent was plastic of some sort – representing a 17 per cent increase from 2021.

The report found the rise in plastic has been driven by soft plastic, hard plastic and polystyrene.

“While packaging helps protect our products, non-recyclable materials end up in landfill and have long-term negative impacts on the environment,” Choice journalist Andy Kollmorgen said.

“Businesses need to be doing everything they can to ensure their packaging is as sustainable as possible, including getting rid of non-recyclable foam materials such as polystyrene.

“Unfortunately, our findings show that manufacturers need to be doing much more when it comes to eliminating non-recyclable packaging. Just one of the 38 products we analysed had fully recyclable packaging materials.”

Best and worst packaging

Choice’s analysis included packaging from 38 kettles, air fryers and stick vacuums from popular brands such as Breville, Philips and Dyson.

The percentage of recyclable components for each product were calculated to rank the selection from best to worst.

The packaging of the Black + Decker Power Series Extreme stick vacuum was the only one of those tested found to be fully recyclable, with Choice’s experts observing it had good use of moulded fibre for the full length of the vacuum.

Choice’s top and lowest-rated packaging in terms of sustainability.

The lowest-rated packaging encased the Dreame Cordless Vacuum T30 stick vacuum, found to be 30 per cent sustainable.

Choice’s experts noted a large number of non-recyclable plastic items need to be replaced or removed from the packaging, and plastic handles would need to be detached from the cardboard for recycling.

The full findings can be found here.

Not enough information given

Choice also found most manufacturers failed to explain clearly which packaging components are recyclable, and what people should do with them.

The boxes evaluated by the consumer group featured a variety of different symbols, including the familiar Litterman logo (illustration of a figure putting rubbish in a bin), the Mobius Loop recycling symbol (three arrows forming a loop) and the Plastics Identification Code (three arrows forming a triangle containing a number from 1–7).

Symbols can be useful for informing consumers how materials should be disposed of.

But a number of markings found on the examined boxes were not easily decipherable, which could leave consumers confused about whether the materials are recyclable, and what they should do with them.

For example, the Smeg electric kettle box featured a Litterman logo side by side with a recyclable label.

“Our review shows that manufacturers need to lift their game when it comes to communicating recyclability to customers through package labelling or other instructions,” Kollmorgen said.

“It’s left up to consumers to navigate a confusing array of recycling symbols and figure out if the packaging is recyclable or not, which only impedes the recycling efforts.”