February 2023 - Page 2 of 2 - Plastic Waste Solutions
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The REDcycle crisis that never was – Australia
Posted on February 14, 2023 by DrRossH in Plastic RecyclingSource Few events in waste have captured our attention in recent months like the disruption in REDcycle soft plastic collections. What the Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and others have dubbed a ‘collapse’ has been also variously referred to as a ‘crisis’,...
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Changing the course to bring prosperity – Australia
Posted on February 8, 2023 by DrRossH in Plastic RecyclingSource The year 2022 has brought about a change in government and will quite possibly bring about a positive shift in approach to our sector. It is hoped that this shift is the result of growing knowledge and understanding of...
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Biomethane: On the road away from fossil fuels – Europe
Posted on February 8, 2023 by DrRossH in Landfills and DisposalSource Sustainable energy is a necessity. When produced locally, biomethane is green and sustainable, and will play an important role in a future (almost) without fossil fuels. Fast growth necessary Today there are over 20,000 biogas and biomethane plants in Europe. The...
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SINGLE-USE PLASTIC PRODUCTION STILL ON THE RISE; THREATENS TO PUSH SOCIETY FURTHER FROM NET-ZERO CLIMATE GOALS – Australia
Posted on February 6, 2023 by DrRossH in Plastic RecyclingSource SINGAPORE, Feb. 5, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Minderoo Foundation's groundbreaking Plastic Waste Makers Index (PWMI) 2023 shows the planet's plastic pollution problem is worsening, and new estimates of lifecycle greenhouse gas...
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Everyone knows single-use plastic is bad for the environment, so why do we keep making more?
Posted on February 6, 2023 by DrRossH in Plastic Recyclinghttps://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/everyone-knows-single-use-plastic-is-bad-for-the-environment-so-why-do-we-keep-making-more/k0s09tfyp KEY POINTS An additional six million metric tonnes of single use plastic was created in 2021, compared to 2019.Recycling is failing to scale fast enough and remains a marginal activity for the plastics sector.A circular plastics economy would see the...
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Forrest calls for tax on unrecycled plastics as world production increases Australia
Posted on February 6, 2023 by DrRossH in Plastic RecyclingSource Andrew Forrest’s philanthropic arm has called for Australia to introduce taxes on unrecycled plastics, after it found worldwide plastic production had continued to rise despite the increased focus of governments and consumers. Dr Forrest’s Minderoo Foundation on Monday will release...
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Coles, Woolworths ordered to dump 5000 tonnes of soft plastic from failed recycling program – Australia
Posted on February 6, 2023 by DrRossH in Plastic RecyclingSource Australia's two largest supermarkets have been ordered to dump thousands of kilograms of soft plastics in landfill after a failed recycling program. Coles and Woolworths have been served notice by the
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RecycleSmart’s plastic recycling for Sydney councils – Australia
Posted on February 2, 2023 by DrRossH in Plastic RecyclingSource Recycling specialist RecycleSmart is starting a soft plastic recycling solution for residents in four councils in Sydney. Launched in 2019, the Sydney-based startup collects tricky-to-recycle items, such as soft plastics, clothing, e-waste and more from residents’ homes and drops the...
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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?