January 2023 - Page 2 of 2 - Plastic Waste Solutions
-
Recyclables export tax a blow to industry: NWRIC – Australia
Posted on January 10, 2023 by DrRossH in Plastic RecyclingSource The Federal Government is proposing to introduce a tax for all recyclables exported after July 1. In addition to charging exporters a new annual registration fee of $30,000, all glass, used tyres, plastics, paper and cardboard products exported will...
Continue reading this entry → -
Things everyone should know about the circular economy – Australia
Posted on January 9, 2023 by DrRossH in Plastic Limiting Regulations, Plastic Recycling, Plastic Waste NewsSource It always surprises me when governments announce waste/recycling policies which bear little resemblance to what is actually needed. But I blame myself. It means that I have not spent enough time providing evidence to politicians and their advisors, on...
Continue reading this entry → -
Microplastics take outsized role as Senate Democrats seek action – USA
Posted on January 8, 2023 by DrRossH in Plastic Limiting RegulationsSource Pushed by health worries about microplastics and studies suggesting they're ubiquitous in the environment, some Democrats in Congress want Washington to take a closer look. A group of lawmakers introduced legislation in December directing federal...
Continue reading this entry → -
Environmentalists nab win on chemical recycling in federal budget – USA
Posted on January 8, 2023 by DrRossH in Plastic RecyclingSource Specifically, the budget legislation formally urges the Environmental Protection Agency to keep regulating pyrolysis and gasification technologies as municipal waste combustion operations, rather than as manufacturing facilities, as plastics industry groups want. The EPA...
Continue reading this entry → -

Amazon Packages Burn in India, Final Stop in Broken Recycling System – USA
Posted on January 8, 2023 by DrRossH in Plastic RecyclingSource Less likely to feature in tourism guides is Muzaffarnagar’s new status as the final destination for tons of supposedly recycled American plastic. On a November afternoon, mosquitoes swarmed above plastic trash piled 6 feet high off one of the city’s...
Continue reading this entry →

How many people today grab a takeaway coffee cup from the local cafe to drink on the go? We don’t know, but the number must be enormous.. Most every one of the above have a plastic top that will last 100s of years. Some cafes still use plastic cups that last a similar time. Is 10 minutes of coffee worth 100s of years of trash?
These items can be seen littering our gutters and on our streets all over the place. If they were all cardboard, they would still be littered, but they would, at least, be gone in a short time.
They do not need to be made of plastic.
On the way home from the gym last week, a distance of about 1 km (1/2 mile), I counted the items of plastic litter on the curb as I walked. In that short distance I counted 63 pieces of plastic litter. Plastic drink bottles, bottle tops, candy wrappers, plastic film, polystyrene fragments etc. That seemed to be a lot to me. I guess it is a generational thing. Our parents would have been horrified to see that amount, whereas it seems to go unnoticed by our youth of today. In another 20 years how many pieces will there be on this stretch, -- 200? What will today’s youth think of that new amount then when they are older? Will their children be so readily accepting of a higher amount of litter?