Plastic waste in Australia - And the recycling greenwash - By 2050, the amount of plastic consumed in

Plastic Waste in Australia Plastic waste in Australia And the recycling greenwash By 2050, the amount of plastic consumed in Australia will more than double. [...] The likely cause of this temporary reduction, according to the 2016 National Waste Report, is the phase-in of lightweighting technology.47 This approach involves reducing the amount of plastic used in a given package in order to reduce the per item plastic content. [...] As shown in Figure 5 below, only 14% of plastic waste generated in 2020–21 was recovered – this is a decline from a high of nearly 18% in 2008.71 Over a 20-year period the rate of recovery has, at best, remained stable, and at worst – as an Australian Government report states – is “even trending 68 Adding the volumes of plastic disposed of and recovered gives the total amount of plastic waste gene. [...] Under this scheme, the television and computer industries are required to fund the collection and recycling of a portion of used televisions and computers.157 This diverts waste from landfill and helps to recover valuable materials for future use.158 However, the scheme is relatively small, and any similar scheme for plastics would need to incorporate the actual portion of waste produced, and not. [...] As environmental organisation Break Free From Plastic puts it: “We cannot recycle our way out of the plastic problem and companies that are claiming it is the solution are simply avoiding making real change.”165 The only way to effectively reduce plastic pollution is to drastically reduce the production and consumption of plastics in the first place.