Environment ministers in our country will be meeting on May 22 to discuss the possibility of introducing a 10 cent container deposit plan. Consumers would pay the 10c per container fee at the till, but then be able to collect the same amount for returning the packaging to a recycling depot once they’re done with it.
This seems like a great idea and something that we should be supporting. After all, we Aussies consume and discard 3.4 million tones of packaging every year, with only 56 percent being recycled! According to Clean Up Australia, eight out of 10 waste items in the average household are from packaging, making it a significant portion of our household waste.
It’s high time that producers take some responsibility for the packaging waste they create and encourage with the products we buy from them. If they don’t begin to pay for the waste, we as consumers will continue to have to do so instead. Since much of the packaging waste is useless unless recycled, we pay about $50 every year (per household) to cover the costs of dealing with it. Estimates at the savings we could reap by diverting this waste from the landfill indicate that there’s huge potential: Hornsby shire could save $450 thousand annually, for instance.
While there are those who argue that the Container Deposit Legislation (CDL) will reduce participating rates in the kerbside recycling program, experts in the field contend that these two programs can work well together and that side-by-side, they can increase our rates of recycling to between 70 percent and 85 percent.
So if you haven’t already, tell your Local Government representatives, environmental community organizations, and the Environment Movement that you want to see the CDL move forward. It’s about time!
Of course, one of the best ways to beat the challenge of packaging waste is to consume less of it. At Grass Roots Eco-Store, we’ve got lots of reusable kitchen and homeware items that will help you reduce the amount of packaging waste you generate each week.
This seems like a great idea and something that we should be supporting. After all, we Aussies consume and discard 3.4 million tones of packaging every year, with only 56 percent being recycled! According to Clean Up Australia, eight out of 10 waste items in the average household are from packaging, making it a significant portion of our household waste.
It’s high time that producers take some responsibility for the packaging waste they create and encourage with the products we buy from them. If they don’t begin to pay for the waste, we as consumers will continue to have to do so instead. Since much of the packaging waste is useless unless recycled, we pay about $50 every year (per household) to cover the costs of dealing with it. Estimates at the savings we could reap by diverting this waste from the landfill indicate that there’s huge potential: Hornsby shire could save $450 thousand annually, for instance.
While there are those who argue that the Container Deposit Legislation (CDL) will reduce participating rates in the kerbside recycling program, experts in the field contend that these two programs can work well together and that side-by-side, they can increase our rates of recycling to between 70 percent and 85 percent.
So if you haven’t already, tell your Local Government representatives, environmental community organizations, and the Environment Movement that you want to see the CDL move forward. It’s about time!
Of course, one of the best ways to beat the challenge of packaging waste is to consume less of it. At Grass Roots Eco-Store, we’ve got lots of reusable kitchen and homeware items that will help you reduce the amount of packaging waste you generate each week.
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