The Australian National Timber Product Stewardship Group (NTPSG) has signed the National Packaging Covenant, a voluntary agreement between industry and governments to reduce packaging waste.

The NTPSG hopes the move will raise awareness among other signatories of post-use options for wood pallets and packaging such as crates and boxes.

Wood and timber is generally considered a sustainable packaging material in Australia because it is cost effective, strong, reliable, repairable and reusable making it the material of choice for major transport and logistics companies.

However, end-of-life wood transport pallets and packaging, particularly large volumes of single-use wood packaging used to import goods, are a large component of the wood waste stream.

A Hyder Consulting report in 2007 estimated some 300,000 tonnes of redundant wood packaging is sent to landfill each year.

The NTPSG has been set up to maximise the environmental benefits of wood products post-use and help develop markets for the re-use, recycling or generation of renewable energy from wood - in order that it can have more life.

Chair of the NTPSG, Peter Juniper says membership of the National Packaging Covenant is a step in the right direction to help the group raise awareness of options for recovery of post-consumer wood packaging around Australia.

While a significant proportion of end-of-life pallets and packaging is recovered already, being a part of the Covenant will assist the NTPSG in its aim of doubling recovery of all post-consumer wood to one million tonnes per year by 2017.

National Packaging Covenant chief executive officer, Ed Cordner, welcomed the NTPSG.

"The Covenant is a voluntary initiative by Governments and industry to reduce the environmental impact of packaging through product stewardship," he says.

"The timber industry is also committed to product stewardship and we look forward to working with them to divert wood packaging from landfill.”