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? Waste bans need revisiting: Veolia CEO – Australia
Posted on September 28, 2023 by DrRossH in GeneralAs an export ban on paper and cardboard waste looms, Veolia CEO Richard Kirkman asks if it’s time for a rethink.
Source: Waste bans need revisiting: Veolia CEO – Waste Management Review
Richard says the mandatory packaging rules are an opportunity to create a level playing field for best practise waste outcomes. But packaging rules alone won’t drive the change needed to meet waste targets. A strong market signal is required, and Veolia proposes a ‘Pay-As-You-Buy scheme’.
A Pay-As-You-Buy scheme incentivises the supply chain to design for recyclability, including using recycled content, and ensures producers pay their fair share of waste and resource recovery costs.
When this cost is incorporated into the purchase price of materials, higher levies can be placed on items that are difficult to recycle, incentivising recyclability.
Veolia currently has a proposal for an Advanced Energy Recovery Centre at Woodlawn, New South Wales before the NSW Department of Planning. If approved, the centre would produce up to 30 megawatts of electrical energy from about 380,000 tonnes of residual waste each year.
“Veolia is always bringing the best solutions from around the world to Australia, including in energy-from-waste and anaerobic digestion,” Richard says.
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