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? Europe/New Zealand leading the way in CDS refund
Posted on September 13, 2022 by DrRossH in Plastic Limiting Regulations, Plastic RecyclingThe latest European state to announce adoption of a container deposit/refund scheme is Austria. Commencing in 2024, Austria will launch its scheme with a €0.25 Euro deposit value, equivalent of around A$0.40cents. That’s four times higher than Australia’s current value. New Zealand is also investigating looking at a CDS.
New Zealand consumers have also through this poll, unsurprisingly and overwhelmingly, prefer dropping off their used containers for the refund at supermarkets followed by small stores with a combined total of 85 per cent. Only 15 per cent said they would access depots or other similar locations. Gladly, New Zealand is proposing to mandate retailers over a certain size to take back used containers.
As Austria declares its intent, i.e. to achieve high beverage container recycling rates, led by a meaningful deposit value, as well of course as the usual highly-convenient European return-to-retail legislation, Australia should be taking note. Our deposit/refund value at NZ$0.10cents is inadequate, we are being left behind, if we want to get high recycling rates.
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