Since February 2024, Woolworths’ in-store collection network has returned more than 50 million pieces of soft plastics, diverting about 415,000kg of material from landfill and giving it a second life with Australian recyclers.
What began as a five-store trial has grown into a network of more than 700 stores, delivered through Soft Plastic Stewardship Australia with other supermarket retailers and major brands.
Jasmine Medwell, head of sustainable impact at Woolworths Group, believes this initiative demonstrates that circularity can move beyond a compliance exercise and become a practical, customer-facing solution.
Medwell helps oversee the grocery giant’s work on circularity, surplus food waste, customer-facing product stewardship and recycling. Her perspective is shaped by 26 years across the food system: A decade at Kraft Foods and 12 years in Coles’ own brand team. That mix of manufacturing, commercial, and retail experience gives her an unusually rounded view of how sustainability programs are designed, funded, and scaled.
Medwell shared her experience with the co-hosts of the podcast series Women Transforming Food: Amie Larter, CEO of Octomedia, publisher of Inside FMCG, and Angeline Achariya, Asia Pacific chair of the Food Systems Innovation and Resilience Wing with the G100 Mission Million.
A flagship product of the recycling program is SaveBoard, a wall panelling made from soft plastics mixed with milk and juice cartons. Customers can see it in the self-checkout areas and trolley bays of around 170 Woolworths stores.
“It’s a great example of supporting that circular economy and also supporting local businesses like SaveBoard, IQRenew, and Plascrete, all based in Australia,” she says.
Such programs, Medwell explains, require careful planning and a deep understanding of the system. But she adds that reframing the sustainability conversation may be just as important in bringing people on board.
“In the food industry, we need to shift the discussion from net zero and climate targets towards sustainable food systems, because regardless of your own personal views on climate change, everyone can relate to sustainable food systems.”
She says the discussion should focus on how we, along with our suppliers and farmers, can feed the nation for the next 100 years.
“This is about building more resilient businesses to tackle annual extreme weather events – floods, fires, and cyclones – that we experience in Australia every year. We can’t just accept the reasons not to do something and be content with the status quo as sustainability leaders.
“We need to look at those commercial opportunities that come with shifting the narrative to sustainable food systems.”
From cost to culture
Medwell’s sustainability journey began when she worked with Vegemite maker Kraft. She recalls that her quest to reduce packaging began with cutting packaging costs and putting more product on pallets to improve efficiency, before sustainability became a “big thing”.
“However, I was still as passionate about sustainability then as I am today. When I was 21, I convinced my research and development colleagues to switch the pool car from a V6 Ford Falcon to a Toyota Prius; you can imagine how that went down. But it showed how small changes could win over my peers. When I moved to Coles in 2009, that was when I saw the industry start to dial up companies having sustainability ambition and agendas.”
Fast forward to her current role at Woolworths, she finds it exciting to work in a space where you can demonstrate the value of sustainability and work on initiatives that are important to customers, such as the convenience of EV charging whilst you do your grocery shop, or of dropping off your bottles and cans at the 10 cent container deposit scheme kiosk in the supermarket car park and getting a voucher to get money off your shop.
“That really helps customers with the high cost of living. So it’s a really fun space to work in.”
The National Food Waste Strategy puts Australia’s food waste at an astronomical 7.6 million tonnes a year. Medwell is often asked, when you look at a problem of that scale, where do you start?
“I get this question all the time, like at barbecues and family gatherings; people ask me what they should do to stop the impacts of climate change. I say: Stop throwing out food, eat your leftovers, finish your plate. If global food waste were a country, it would be the third-largest emitter of greenhouse gases, behind China and America.
“This is all in our control: What we buy, what we consume, and what we throw out. When Australian consumers are surveyed, most are concerned with reducing food waste and, second, reducing plastic packaging, both very visible in the family home.
“When you start with a big problem like food waste, it’s about changing the narrative and mindset so we don’t call it food waste, but we call it food surplus or the food we just don’t sell in our supermarkets. Don’t call it waste; it’s still food. Just because it hasn’t been sold today doesn’t mean it can’t go to someone who needs it. The latest hunger report from Foodbank highlights that one in three Australian households, that’s 3.5 million households, experienced food insecurity last year, a mind-boggling statistic.
“It is such a necessity to focus on surplus food going to people as the priority and supporting the great work like our partners, OzHarvest and Foodbank, do.”
The balancing act for plastic
With over 25 years in the industry, Medwell knows plastic packaging often gets a negative reputation. But it has a place in broader sustainability ambitions.
For example, wrapping a Continental cucumber in one gram of very thin plastic prevents moisture loss, extending shelf life from about three days to two weeks. Lebanese cucumbers remain shelf-stable longer, so they don’t require plastic wrapping.
“It’s all about giving customers a choice. It is a fine balance, but they are intrinsically linked: Plastic packaging extends a product’s shelf life and reduces food waste.”
- Listen to the podcast to hear Medwell explain how to get colleagues and team members on board with sustainability initiatives, where businesses can begin their journey, and why some FMCG companies are placing their sustainability teams under finance or commercial departments, moving them away from their traditional home in corporate affairs.
