The Federal Minister for the Environment, Hon. Greg Hunt MP, has announced his endorsement of the new 2016 – 2020 National Environment Sustainability Agreement (NESA) at the newspaper industry’s annual conference, the 2015 Future Forum.

NESA is the 6^th five-year voluntary plan that the industry has achieved, bringing the industry into its third decade of world-leading product stewardship and recycling commitments.

In launching this Agreement, Greg Hunt said: “This is another example of Australia leading the world on environmental issues. The Australian newspaper and magazine publishers, and the newsprint production industry, have a uniquely successful plan which has seen us move to be among the best recyclers in the world.”

The NESA, which will run for the next five years, is a unique, voluntary agreement between the Australian newsprint and magazine industry and all state, territory and federal jurisdictions.

It continues the proud legacy of the first voluntary agreement of 1992, which has seen recycling rates of newsprint increasing from 28 per cent to just under 80 per cent – a rate that is among the world’s highest.

Under the NESA, all of the lifecycle components of news media are accounted for – from sustainable forest practices, best practice paper production, the use of safe inks, to the recovery and re-use of paper once people have finished reading it.

Peter Netchaef, executive director environment at The Newspaper Works said: “The NESA has stood the test of time as an example of how industry and Government can work together on a voluntary basis and produce results that cannot be achieved by either on their own. The industry commends Minister Hunt for his support and endorsement of this Agreement.”