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? 
Industry steps up on soft plastics recycling – Australia
Posted on March 1, 2023 by DrRossH in Plastic Recycling
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 Plibersek said it was a positive example of retailers taking responsibility for the lifecycle of products that they have sold and shows that the Government’s Soft Plastics Taskforce is making progress.
Woolworths and Coles are taking responsibility for the stockpiles that exist but more work is needed before recycling collection for soft plastics can start again.
REDcycle suspended collections in November 2022. At the time it was Australia’s largest soft plastic collection program, however it faced a series of processing and recycling issues. This was compounded by a fire shutting down its largest recycling facility.
The Victorian Environment Protection Authority has since uncovered 14 warehouses around Victoria and New South Wales where soft plastics have been stockpiled.
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