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? ACCC authorises new industry-led soft plastics recycling scheme – Australia
Posted on August 14, 2025 by DrRossH in Plastic RecyclingA step forward for Australia’s soft plastics recycling has been announced, with the ACCC greenlighting a new, industry-led scheme.
Source: ACCC authorises new industry-led soft plastics recycling scheme – Waste Management Review
ACCC Deputy Chair Mick Keogh highlighted the scheme’s significance, stating, “It is clear that many Australians are concerned about the environmental impacts of soft plastic packaging and want to recycle it.”
According to data published by the Australian Packaging Covenant Organisation (APCO), more than 540,000 tonnes of soft plastic packaging were used by manufacturers in packaging their products between 2022 and 2023; however, only six per cent of this was recovered.
The soft plastic packaging comprised both business-to-consumer and business-to-business packaging (such as wrapping goods on pallets). It is estimated that 70 per cent of soft plastic packaging is business-to-consumer.
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