The role of business to help reduce plastic pollution – Australia

The role of business to help reduce plastic pollution – Australia

Posted on December 14, 2021 by DrRossH in Plastic Waste News

Source: The role of business to help reduce plastic pollution – Inside Waste

With an aim to reduce pollution and confront some of the world’s most challenging environmental problems, a circular economy uses a multitude of approaches. Whether through design, sharing, repair, recycling or behavioural change, a circular economy fully accounts for the products and materials we use. But underpinning the numerous aspects of how a circular economy reduces waste is a single factor: accountability.

Accountability key to stopping plastic pollution
Accountability is key in waste reduction, and especially key in the movement to stem the tide of plastic pollution choking our oceans and waterways. Plastic use in Australia is projected to double by 2040, with 130,000 tonnes already making its way into the marine environment. And as we’re now finding, this is just the tip of the polystyrene iceberg. Last year, CSIRO suggested there might be up to 14 million tonnes of microplastics (plastic of 5mm diameter or less) in the deep ocean – an amount that as it decays, will spread even further. Yet despite its globally significant and ever-growing impact, plastic production and use has been normalised to the point of being almost unconscious.