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? 
Pact trial advances soft plastics recycling in NZ – New Zealand
Posted on August 6, 2026 by DrRossH in Plastic RecyclingA decade of technical development has culminated in a commercial-scale trial that is converting mixed polymer post-consumer soft plastics into durable construction products.
Source: Pact trial advances soft plastics recycling in NZ – PKN Packaging News
Working with the Soft Plastics Recycling Scheme and The Packaging Forum, Pact Recycling NZ has successfully processed mixed polymer soft plastics through its upgraded wash plant at East Tamaki, converting the material into products including underground cable cover and plastic plywood.
The feedstock is collected through New Zealand’s retail soft plastics collection network, including supermarket drop-off points, before being washed, reprocessed and remanufactured.
Mixed polymer soft plastics – including items such as foil-lined snack packets, multilayer food pouches and plastic bags – have traditionally been difficult to recycle because they combine multiple plastic types in a single structure, making conventional mechanical recycling challenging.
An initial 5000kg trial delivered a material yield of around 72 per cent, which Pact says is comparable with some post-consumer material processed through conventional material recovery facilities. Based on those results, the company has commenced a three-month trial processing around 20,000kg of material each month during July, August and September
Great to see examples of serious commitment to reusing plastic waste. A good example of recycling of plastics but not being part of the circular economy as this has no impact on the companies making the plastic bags and snack packs. Those companies are still not contributing to the problem their products make.
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