Access to education initiatives

[extract from epa.nsw.gov.au]

Support and education has been delivered to more than 23,000 businesses and retailers around the state ahead of the upcoming 1 November single use plastic bans in NSW, with information delivered in 15 different languages.

Minister for Environment James Griffin said to ensure small businesses are primed for more changes this year, the NSW Government engaged the National Retail Association (NRA) to deliver a massive retailer education campaign.

“Single-use plastic is an environmental disaster, which is why we’re banning some of the most problematic plastics such as bags and straws in NSW,” Mr Griffin said.

“Single-use plastic items and packaging make up 60 per cent of all litter in NSW, and the bans will prevent almost 2.7 billion items of plastic litter from entering the environment in NSW over the next 20 years.

“These bans require businesses, many of which are in hospitality and retail, to change their supply chains, and I’m pleased to see so many have already moved away from plastic items well before the additional bans come into place in November.

“These single-use plastic bans are just the beginning of a major move away from plastic in NSW, and we’re making sure businesses have the information they need to stop using plastics and start using environmentally friendly options.”

What is and isn’t part of the ban?

From November, the NSW Government is banning single-use items including

  • plastic straws, stirrers, cutlery, plates, bowls and cotton buds
  • food ware and cups made from expanded polystyrene
  • rinse-off personal care products containing plastic microbeads.

This comes after lightweight single-use plastic bags were banned in NSW from 1 June.

On behalf of the NSW Government, the NRA has already delivered support about the single-use plastic bans to more than half of the 40,000 target businesses, and visited more than 560 retail precincts of the 650 target around the state since February.

Key support for the small players

Minister for Multiculturalism Mark Coure said the NSW Government is ensuring everyone, especially small business owners in diverse communities, are ready when the change comes into effect.

“Small businesses are the backbone of our state’s economy, and we want to ensure everyone knows what they need to do so they are set up for success,” Mr Coure said.

“We also know that many business owners in diverse areas play an integral role in helping inform their broader community about what is happening and what actions they need to take.

“That’s why we’re assisting business owners with in-language services about the single-use plastic bans in 15 different languages, so they know what to do and can also support their communities through this important change.”

Easy to make, hard to get rid off.

A world without plastics seems unimaginable today, yet their large-scale production and use only dates back to ~1950. The rapid growth in plastics adoption since is extraordinary, surpassing most other man-made materials. Plastic is cheaper, lighter, and more versatile than most other materials making it ideal for applications that go from consumer packing to construction.  The problem is, that none of the commonly used plastics are biodegradable. As a result, they accumulate, rather than decompose, in landfills or the natural environment (1). Just in NSW, Plastic packaging and so-called single-use plastic items make up 60% of all litter. These items take thousands of years to break down and in the process, they are causing great harm to our natural environment and wildlife.

Where do plastics end up?

Figure 1. Global production, use, and fate of polymer resins, synthetic fibers, and additives (1950 to 2015; in million metric tons).

The only way to permanently eliminate plastic waste is by destructive thermal treatment, such as combustion or pyrolysis. Thus, near-permanent contamination of the natural environment with plastic waste is a growing concern with global evidence of plastic debris has been found in all major ocean basins (1) as well as in freshwater systems and land habitats. Plastic waste is now so ubiquitous in the environment that it has been suggested as a geological indicator of the proposed Anthropocene era (2). There are essentially three different fates for plastic waste. 
  1. First, it can be recycled or reprocessed into a secondary material (3). Recycling delays, rather than avoids, final disposal, however, contamination and the mixing of polymer types generate secondary plastics of limited or low technical and economic value. 
  2. Second, plastics can be destroyed thermally. Although there are emerging technologies, such as pyrolysis, which extracts fuel from plastic waste, to date, virtually all thermal destruction has been by incineration, with or without energy recovery. The environmental and health impacts of waste incinerators strongly depend on emission control technology, as well as incinerator design and operation. 
  3. Finally, plastics can be discarded and either contained in a managed system, such as sanitary landfills, or left uncontained in open dumps or in the natural environment.
As of 2015, approximately 6300 Mt of plastic waste had been generated, around 9% of which had been recycled, 12% was incinerated, and 79% was accumulated in landfills or the natural environment. (4)

References

  1. D. K. A. Barnes, F. Galgani, R. C. Thompson, M. Barlaz, Accumulation and fragmentation of plastic debris in global environments. Philos. Trans. R. Soc. B 364, 1985–1998 (2009).
  2. J. Zalasiewicz, Colin N. Waters, Juliana Ivar do Sul, Patricia L. Corcoran, Anthony D. Barnosky, Alejandro Cearreta, Matt Edgeworth, Agnieszka Gałuszka, Catherine Jeandel, Reinhold Leinfelder, J.R. McNeill, Will Steffen, Colin Summerhayes, Michael Wagreich, Mark Williams, Alexander P. Wolfe, Yasmin Yonan, The geological cycle of plastics and their use as a stratigraphic indicator of the Anthropocene. Anthropocene 13, 4–17 (2016).
  3. N. H. Mutha, M. Patel, V. Premnath, Plastics material flow analysis for India. Resour. Conserv. Recycl. 47, 222–244 (2006).
  4. Geyer, Roland, Jenna R. Jambeck, and Kara Lavender Law. “Production, use, and fate of all plastics ever made.” Science advances 3.7 (2017): e1700782.

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