March 2023 - Page 2 of 2 - Plastic Waste Solutions
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Posted on March 9, 2023 by DrRossH in Plastic & Wildlife
Source As millions of tonnes a year of microplastic waste mounts in marine environments, Flinders University scientists warn the ramifications to wildlife, food webs and human health are still little understood. An Environmental Pollution
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Roadmap to restart soft plastic recycling released – Australia
Posted on March 8, 2023 by DrRossH in Plastic RecyclingSource The Soft Plastics Taskforce has released a Roadmap to Restart, outlining the steps needed to launch a new supermarket soft plastic collection scheme, and the current state of play in the Australian recycling industry. The Taskforce, made up of...
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AGL chair repeats “lights will go out” coal threat as gas lobby goes into overdrive – Australia
Posted on March 2, 2023 by DrRossH in Landfills and DisposalSource Scare tactics by the fossil fuled companies to not reduce their output "But with every push into the future, however reluctant or small, it appears that McKenzie is dutifully wheeled out to put a dampener on market expectations – and...
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REDcycle’s Liz Kasell speaks – Australia
Posted on March 2, 2023 by DrRossH in Plastic RecyclingSource In 2011, REDcycle went where no recycler, retailer, brand, or organisation in Australia had gone before. Over a decade ago, household soft plastic product packaging was the frustrating, ubiquitous material ending up in my weekly waste bin that I could...
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Industry steps up on soft plastics recycling – Australia
Posted on March 1, 2023 by DrRossH in Plastic RecyclingSource The Australian Government has welcomed an offer by Woolworths and Coles to take joint responsibility for the stockpiles of soft plastics that have accumulated as a result of the suspension of REDcycle. Minister for the Environment and Water, Tanya...
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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?