A single-use plastic and metal drinking vessel dubbed a “franken-can” has been given the dubious honour of being hailed as Australia’s worst plastic packaging.
The plastic-metal hybrid can, which is not accepted by container refund schemes or easily recycled – has won the inaugural Unpackit award.
The Unpackit awards have been established by the Australian Marine Conservation Society, Plastic Free Foundation and WWF-Australia to highlight the volume of plastic packaging used by Australians each year – an estimated 1.3m tonnes.
Cip Hamilton, plastics campaigns manager for the marine conservation society, said of the inaugural award winner: “The franken-can is a completely unnecessary plastic-metal hybrid can that essentially ticks every box for problematic packaging.”
“We’re seeing cafes use these single-use plastic items for customers who are dining in,” she added.
Sign up for the Breaking News Australia email“They’re likely to end up as street litter, and they’re not accepted by containment refund schemes as other beverage containers are,” she said. “They’re really problematic and really have no place in our economy.”
The cans have already been banned in Western Australia but Hamilton said: “Unfortunately, it’s a state-by-state model at the moment. The Australian government’s very overdue in its national packaging laws.
“We really need the government to be making producers responsible for the full life cycle of their packaging.”
Dishonourable mentions for worst packaging included major supermarkets for wrapping avocados in unnecessary plastic netting, and individually wrapped Mentos mints.
Almost 60% of litter collected in Australia is packaging, and the Unpackit awards also acknowledged ideas that address the problem of plastic pollution.
The winner of the award for Australia’s best packaging was the Udder Way’s 18-litre refillable milk kegs, which work like beer kegs and have averted the need for an estimated 4.5m single-use plastic milk bottles since 2021.
WWF-Australia’s No Plastic in Nature policy manager, Malene Hand, described the Udder Way as “a brilliantly simple alternative to single-use plastic milk bottles”.
“The idea came from Tasmanian cafe owner Ed Crick, who was tired of seeing plastic milk bottles piling up at his cafe every day,” she said.
Hamilton said the milk kegs were available in venues using high volumes of milk, including cafes and event spaces, and were beginning to be rolled out in supermarkets for refills for individual consumers – timely given strait of Hormuz-related increases in the price of resins for making plastic containers.
Honourable mentions went to Bearhug for its reusable pallet wrap system, and to Cercle’s cafe-based reusable coffee cup system.
Bearhug was “started by a truck driver who saw pallets being reused with every load, but the single-use wrap … ending up in the bin”, Hamilton said. One Bearhug wrap displaces 350kg of single-use plastic over its lifetime, and has avoided the need for 25 tonnes of soft plastics in 12 months.
Unpackit was based on awards by the same name established in New Zealand more than a decade ago, Hamilton said. “What we saw there was businesses changing in the way they were packaging their products in response to these awards.
“The only way we will end plastic pollution is cutting back on how much plastic is being produced, and holding producers responsible for what they’re putting on their shelves.”
The independent MPs Allegra Spender, Sophie Scamps and Kate Chaney announced the Unpackit award winners in Canberra on Wednesday morning.
Scamps said: “These awards show that solutions to our plastic pollution crisis already exist – but packaging producers need an incentive to make the switch to more sustainable practices.
“The packaging industry and environmental organisations are in rare alignment in backing the introduction of a national extended producer responsibility scheme, now it’s time for the government to get on board.”
Stuart Alexander & Co, which manages the Mentos portfolio in Australia, was contacted for comment.
• This article was amended on 3 June 2026. An earlier version incorrectly said Zali Steggall was one of the MPs who announced the winners.
