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? AWRE 2023 set to provide a wake-up call for Australia
Posted on May 17, 2023 by DrRossH in Plastic RecyclingDespite the urgency for change in Australia’s resource recovery system, the 2022 National Waste Report showed that the nation is moving backwards.
The national waste plan aims to reduce the total waste generated by 10 per cent per person by 2030, however Australia’s waste production has increased by 2.48 tonnes per person, according to the report.
She says that given Australia hasn’t delivered the systems-wide change that is needed to achieve the resource recovery targets or move more closely towards them, it would’ve been against-the-odds for the numbers to be moving forward.
To progress, she says four key challenges need to be addressed.
“The first is a regulatory environment. Our environmental protection regulation is not aligned with circular economy outcomes. There is an over emphasis on managing pollution or risk and a lack of balance and emphasis in industry development,” Suzanne says.
“Second is end markets. Recycling is a system. The system is comprised of three things: collection, processing, and markets. If one of those things doesn’t work, the whole system doesn’t work. We absolutely need to be able to collect and aggregate in a scaled way, the type of infrastructure that can source, reprocess, and remanufacture is also needed. Without end markets, recycling can’t work.
“The next priority that needs progress to move resource recovery forward is product stewardship. It’s a real responsibility by producers over what they put into the supply chain, what we end up with and what we’re able to recover and recycle.”
Suzanne says the right behaviours in the community are also needed for progress. The fourth priority is the need for businesses and individuals who recycle correctly.
“As soon as you put the wrong waste in the wrong bins, you end up with contamination for the recycling sector,” she says. “The material doesn’t go where it needs to and does not get recycled. So, recycling right is a priority.”
It would be great if all the above could happen and we stop making waste.
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