With Aussie businesses producing over half of all plastic waste in Australia, Planet Ark is calling for business owners to do their bit to reduce, reuse and recycle.
Currently, Australian businesses send over one million tonnes of plastic waste to landfills each year. The How to Reduce and Recycle Plastics at Work guide is an online tool designed to help Australian businesses cut down on their plastic waste.
The guide is suitable for any business or workplace that uses plastic, but Planet Ark CEO Rebecca Gilling says the guide will be particularly useful for small businesses to help them improve their management and use of plastic products.
War on plastic
“There is a great deal of concern about plastic pollution among Australians, both in terms of the impact on our beautiful natural environment and in terms of overall waste creation,” said Gilling.
“We created this guide to make it easy for businesses around the country to take responsibility and reduce, reuse and recycle plastics in their workplace.”
Opportunity for businesses to reduce waste
Gilling said there exists an opportunity for businesses to improve their management of plastics through reuse and recycling.
“Doing so will boost our economy, provide more green jobs, and preserve our natural resources.”
Businesses and workplaces have an important role to play in turning around Australia’s plastic problem, by salvaging these valuable materials for reuse and keeping them out of landfills. The guide comes at a time when state governments across Australia are rolling out single-use plastic bags to address plastic pollution in the environment and the quantity of plastics being sent to landfills.
According to the most recent National Waste Report released in 2020, there is now more than 50 million tonnes of plastic in Australian landfills, with around 1.2 million tonnes of plastic of the 2.1 million tonnes added per year created by businesses. Perhaps even more concerning from an environmental perspective, seven of the top ten litter items collected from the nation’s largest waterways are plastic.
How to Reduce and Recycle Plastics at Work provides simple solutions to the top ten plastic products used at work making it easier for businesses to reduce their plastic impact and potentially reduce waste management costs. The guide also provides case studies of Australian businesses that have championed plastic waste reduction, how to use the waste hierarchy at work and information on plastic recycling and plastic identification codes.
How to Reduce and Recycle Plastics at Work is available in full at: businessrecycling.com.au/research/reduce_recycle_plastics
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