January 2024 - Plastic Waste Solutions
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Why Papier-Mettler pulled out of planned infrastructure investment – Australia
Posted on January 24, 2024 by DrRossH in Plastic RecyclingWhich brings us to Papier-Mettler. The family-run German company was founded in 1957 by Hans Georg Mettler as a paper wholesaler business Source: Why Papier-Mettler pulled out of planned infrastructure investment - Inside Waste “The sustainability and the success of recycling...
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Plastic packaging waste tax could raise billions – Australia
Posted on January 24, 2024 by DrRossH in Plastic RecyclingNew research from the Australia Institute shows a European Union-style tax on plastic packaging could raise nearly $1.5 billion each year. Source: Plastic packaging waste tax could raise billions - Waste Management Review “We’re recovering less than a fifth of...
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Size does matter in city waste stakes
Posted on January 23, 2024 by DrRossH in Plastic Recycling, Plastic Waste NewsWaste is a natural by-product of life on Earth and of productive human economies. Living systems have evolved to reconstitute waste — creatures like dung beetles fill an ecological niche of breaking down other organisms’ faeces — but...
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Canada Plastics Pact sees long road to fix Canada’s flexible plastics recycling – Canada
Posted on January 6, 2024 by DrRossH in Plastic RecyclingA Canadian industry group has a pouch full of recommendations for addressing the major challenges in recycling flexible plastic packaging. Source: Canada Plastics Pact sees long road to fix Canada's flexible plastics recycling | Plastics News Boosting flexible plastic packaging recycling...
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Biden wants federal agencies to cut back on single-use plastics – USA
Posted on January 6, 2024 by DrRossH in Plastic Limiting RegulationsThe Biden administration is floating a plan to have federal agencies voluntarily cut back on purchasing of single-use plastics, rejecting arguments that it set more forceful targets. Source: Biden wants federal agencies to cut back on single-use plastics |...
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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?