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? Australia’s 2025 National Packaging Targets
Posted on March 8, 2022 by DrRossH in Plastic Waste NewsIn 2018 Australia established the ambitious 2025 National Packaging Targets. The Targets create a new sustainable pathway for the way we manage packaging in Australia.
The four Targets are:
- 100 per cent of packaging being reusable, recyclable or compostable by 2025
- 70 per cent of plastic packaging being recycled or composted by 2025
- 50 per cent of average recycled content included in packaging by 2025
- The phase out of problematic and unnecessary single-use plastic packaging by 2025.
The National Packaging Targets apply to all packaging that is made, used and sold in Australia. APCO is charged with delivering the industry-led targets.
Good progress is being made against the Targets. Yet, more work is required to ensure they are delivered in full by 2025. Targets requiring attention by industry include:
- increasing the volume of plastic packaging being recycled
- increasing the amount of recycled content in plastic packaging.
To drive further industry action APCO has set a new recycled content target for plastic packaging (20 per cent). APCO has also set material specific targets for recycled content in plastic packaging made from:
- polyethylene (PET) (30 per cent)
- high-density polyethylene (HDPE) (20 per cent)
- polypropylene (PP) (20 per cent).
Governments and APCO are working together to actively track and review industry’s progress towards the Targets.
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