The Print Register https://latestprintingnews.com/ National trade masthead covering Australia's commercial print and packaging industry from primary documents: processes, standards, substrates, colour, packaging regulation and industry data. Researched and written with AI, under standing editorial rules; every factual claim links its primary source. en Since 1 July every exported bale must be 95 per cent paper, and clearing that is still not compliance https://latestprintingnews.com/paper-export-contaminant-limit-2026/ https://latestprintingnews.com/paper-export-contaminant-limit-2026/ Tue, 04 Aug 2026 16:05:00 GMT The Recycling and Waste Reduction (Export - Waste Paper and Cardboard) Rules 2024, read as in force from 1 July 2026: a 5 per cent contaminant cap written in at three points, a definition that excludes water, and the Hazardous Waste Act overlay. Paper recycling fell 17 per cent while paper waste fell 7. The Senate votes on packaging EPR from data this old https://latestprintingnews.com/paper-recovery-national-waste-report/ https://latestprintingnews.com/paper-recovery-national-waste-report/ Tue, 04 Aug 2026 08:00:00 GMT The National Waste Report 2022, read directly: paper and cardboard generation down 7 per cent, recycling down 17 per cent, disposal up 9 per cent between 2016-17 and 2020-21, and no national edition published since. The packaging EPR inquiry finally has a public transcript, and nobody can say yet who the scheme would capture https://latestprintingnews.com/epr-bill-hearing-evidence/ https://latestprintingnews.com/epr-bill-hearing-evidence/ Mon, 03 Aug 2026 09:30:00 GMT The first Hansard from the Senate inquiry into the No Time to Waste packaging bill, read in full three days before the committee reports. The margin tailwind just turned: printers' input costs rose 1.3 per cent while their prices fell https://latestprintingnews.com/print-input-costs-june-2026/ https://latestprintingnews.com/print-input-costs-june-2026/ Fri, 31 Jul 2026 07:20:00 GMT Analysis of ABS Producer Price Indexes for the June 2026 quarter, building the printing subdivision input and output series from the published data cubes. We read the AS/NZS 4708 draft. Europe's 2006 deforestation cut-off is now written into an Australian standard https://latestprintingnews.com/as-nzs-4708-what-the-draft-changes/ https://latestprintingnews.com/as-nzs-4708-what-the-draft-changes/ Tue, 28 Jul 2026 06:30:00 GMT Amendment One to AS/NZS 4708 adds three new clauses: no reverting plantations to agriculture, a flat prohibition on forest degradation, and proof that no forest in the certified area was converted after 31 December 2006, the EU Deforestation Regulation's cut-off. It also writes free, prior and informed consent into the standard. Europe's deforestation rules are reaching the standard behind certified Australian fibre, and comment closes 7 August https://latestprintingnews.com/as-nzs-4708-revision-eudr/ https://latestprintingnews.com/as-nzs-4708-revision-eudr/ Tue, 28 Jul 2026 05:30:00 GMT AS/NZS 4708, the sustainable forest management standard underpinning PEFC-endorsed certification in Australia, is being amended. Responsible Wood says the changes track PEFC ST 1003:2024, which was introduced to align PEFC with the European Deforestation Regulation. Public comment closes 7 August 2026. For the financial year just begun, packaging producers keep paying the old way: APCO's new EPR fee model is on hold for FY27 https://latestprintingnews.com/apco-epr-fee-model-deferred-fy27/ https://latestprintingnews.com/apco-epr-fee-model-deferred-fy27/ Fri, 24 Jul 2026 08:40:00 GMT APCO says the proposed base-fee-plus-EPR-fee model will not be introduced in FY27; producer fees stay on the current turnover-based model while APCO works a three-year pathway to a regulated, industry-led EPR scheme. Detpak has supplied McDonald's and KFC from offshore for 20 years. The Adelaide firm just opened its first US factory to make their packaging on the spot https://latestprintingnews.com/detpak-first-us-plant-2026/ https://latestprintingnews.com/detpak-first-us-plant-2026/ Thu, 23 Jul 2026 02:50:00 GMT Detpak, the foodservice arm of the Adelaide-headquartered Detmold Group, has opened its first US manufacturing plant, a 175,000-square-foot factory in Spartanburg, South Carolina, to make paper-based packaging for the global fast-food chains it has supplied from offshore for two decades. Australia's soft plastics scheme is authorised for eight years, and still on the drawing board as the stockpile-era deal expires https://latestprintingnews.com/soft-plastics-stewardship-scheme-2026/ https://latestprintingnews.com/soft-plastics-stewardship-scheme-2026/ Tue, 21 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT The ACCC has authorised Soft Plastic Stewardship Australia to run a national soft-plastics recycling scheme for eight years, funded by a levy on brands and retailers. As the interim authorisation covering the post-REDcycle stockpile expires on 31 July 2026, the permanent scheme is still in planning. Orora is taking 108 grams out of the standard Riesling bottle, and making it only on its low-carbon furnace https://latestprintingnews.com/orora-lightweight-riesling-bottle/ https://latestprintingnews.com/orora-lightweight-riesling-bottle/ Mon, 20 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT On 13 July 2026 Orora Glass said its new AG244 Riesling bottle weighs 410g, down 108g (21%) from the 518g AG014, and will be made solely on its G3 oxy-fuel furnace at Gawler. Opal's owner is turning its Green Triangle plantations from hardwood to pine, and into carbon credits https://latestprintingnews.com/nippon-paper-softwood-carbon-plantations/ https://latestprintingnews.com/nippon-paper-softwood-carbon-plantations/ Sun, 19 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT On 15 July 2026 Nippon Paper Group, the Japanese parent of Opal, said it will convert its ageing Green Triangle hardwood plantations to radiata pine and has registered the switch as a Clean Energy Regulator carbon project generating ACCUs. Your packaging could soon be graded A to G. Here is exactly how the scale works https://latestprintingnews.com/kerbside-recyclability-grading-framework/ https://latestprintingnews.com/kerbside-recyclability-grading-framework/ Sat, 18 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT The government's Design for Kerbside Recyclability Grading Framework gives every pack a grade from A to G, across rigid plastics, flexible plastics, fibre, metal and glass. It is in stakeholder engagement through 2026, no decision yet on whether it becomes regulation, and it grades the exact things a printer controls: material, inks, adhesives and labels. APCO is changing CEOs in the middle of the mandatory-packaging window https://latestprintingnews.com/apco-ceo-transition-regulatory-reform-window/ https://latestprintingnews.com/apco-ceo-transition-regulatory-reform-window/ Sat, 11 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT APCO, the body that runs Australia's packaging covenant and now advocates mandatory extended producer responsibility, loses CEO Chris Foley at the end of November 2026. The board says its strategy and its positions before government are unchanged. A private senator's bill wants mandatory packaging rules, and the government's own numbers back it https://latestprintingnews.com/mandatory-packaging-epr-senate-bill/ https://latestprintingnews.com/mandatory-packaging-epr-senate-bill/ Fri, 10 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT 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; DCCEEW's own consultation shows 65 per cent of respondents back mandatory EPR, and APCO, which runs the voluntary covenant, now publicly advocates mandatory settings too. Beyond CMYK: spot colour and extended gamut, explained properly https://latestprintingnews.com/beyond-cmyk-spot-colour-systems-explained/ https://latestprintingnews.com/beyond-cmyk-spot-colour-systems-explained/ Sat, 04 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT When four process colours are not enough: how spot inks, Pantone's extended gamut (CMYK plus orange, green and violet) and the G7 and ISO 12647-2 standards fit together, and what each option costs you in practice. Choosing print substrates and stock, and what certified paper claims mean right now https://latestprintingnews.com/choosing-print-substrates-and-stock/ https://latestprintingnews.com/choosing-print-substrates-and-stock/ Sat, 04 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT A working reference for choosing paper and board, plus the live news: the rules behind FSC and Responsible Wood certified-stock claims are both changing in 2026, with a comment window closing 7 August. Custom packaging for Australian small business: the trend, the rules, the numbers https://latestprintingnews.com/custom-packaging-for-australian-small-business/ https://latestprintingnews.com/custom-packaging-for-australian-small-business/ Sat, 04 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT Why small businesses are buying more custom packaging, what the APCO data says about the fibre packaging they are buying, and the recyclability and labelling rules a small brand is walking into. How offset printing works, and why it still wins long runs https://latestprintingnews.com/how-offset-printing-works/ https://latestprintingnews.com/how-offset-printing-works/ Sat, 04 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT Plates, blankets, make-ready and the colour standard the trade prints to: how offset lithography actually works, and what modern press automation has done to the economics. How print pricing works in Australia https://latestprintingnews.com/how-print-pricing-works-in-australia/ https://latestprintingnews.com/how-print-pricing-works-in-australia/ Sat, 04 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT Why the same job can be quoted at wildly different prices: the fixed-cost anatomy of a print job, what the industry numbers say about cost pressure, and what cheap online quotes trade away. How to prep artwork for print: bleed, resolution, colour and PDF/X https://latestprintingnews.com/how-to-prep-artwork-for-print/ https://latestprintingnews.com/how-to-prep-artwork-for-print/ Sat, 04 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT The practical prepress guide: why bleed exists, what 300dpi actually buys, what an ICC profile is doing, what PDF/X locks down, and the terminology that goes with it. With the standards cited and the conventions labelled as conventions.