Australia now processes its own waste

Plastics was once declared to be the future. While this is true, there has also been detrimental impacts that plastics have had in the environment today. An estimated 500 million tonnes of plastic waste is generated each year, as of 25th July 2021 and the majority of this ends up in the Ocean. 

There were 150 tonnes of plastics in the ocean in 2016 with an estimation that it will rise to 646 tonnes by 2040 if keep doing the same thing. Due to this increase in plastic waste, Australia had decided to take action to reduce it. Following China’s ban of exporting plastics (called the ‘National Sword’ Policy) Australia followed, and decided to stop exporting its plastics to other countries. 

For the first time, Australia is preparing to setting up better waste sorting and recycling facilities for the first time using the government’s recycling modernisation fund. In addition to this, Australia is also a party to the Paris Agreement which is a document that has been signed by other countries with the specific purpose to reduce the amount of waste in society and to move towards a more sustainable future. Packaging and food manufacturers (a large contributor to plastic waste) are to be forced to use recycled plastic and make sure they are made from pure polymers that can be easily recycled. 

The National Plastics Plan – Recycled Content had revealed:

• Current recycling content rate for all packaging is 39% and plastic packaging is 4%
• 2022 target of having 42% for all packaging recycled and 8% for plastic packaging
• Recycling content rate by 2025 according to federal government national plastics plan is 50% all packaging and 20% plastics to be recycles. 
• Net-zero plastic emissions by 2050 is the goal.

This plan that Australia has tried to implement is one that is going to slowly make a difference in the long run. According to a study published in 2021, all the current commitments that are being done by governments and business will only leave a 7% reduction by 2040 in plastic leaking into the ocean.

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