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Tag: Plastic Ban

New Plastic Recycling Rules in Australia

Posted on by dishanth
New Plastic Recycling Rules in Australia

The Background to the Decision

Since industrialization, humans have had a remarkable capacity to alter and change our environment on a large scale.

To facilitate the growth of industry, we have allowed companies and other organizations to pollute the environment indiscriminately with no regard for the people, creatures, and nature that have been impacted.

In most regards, we think of pollution as the toxic air spewed from industrial plants into our atmosphere. While that is a problem, make no mistake about it, there are other problems that rapid industrialization has had on our world.

One of those is plastic pollution, the byproduct of cheap disposable products wrapped in material that the environment cannot break down easily.

While some moves by industry have seen eco-friendly plastics being used in mass production, these examples are few and far between, to the dismay of eco-friendly citizens worldwide.

In some countries, though, that appears to be shifting. Recently a coalition of governments has pushed through legislation for new plastic recycling rules in Australia, forcing companies to take serious measures to curb their output of non-biodegradable plastic products.

How do the new Plastic Recycling Rules in Australia work?

The decision to impose new plastic recycling rules in Australia was made at the first meeting of federal and state environmental ministers in Sydney on Friday, June 9th. Tanya Plibersek, the federal environment minister, said that the “historic agreement” meant packaging would be “subject to strict new government rules.”

The new rules include the following:

  • A ban on single-use plastic bags.
  • A ban on selling disposable coffee cups made from expanded polystyrene (EPS).
  • A requirement for all plastic packaging to be recyclable or compostable by 2025.
  • A requirement for all plastic packaging to be labelled with clear information about its recyclability.

According to a communique released after the agreement, the new plastic recycling rules in Australia would shift the country towards a more circular economy, with the rules addressing three specific areas: packaging design, outlawing harmful chemicals and plastics, and harmonizing curbside plastic recycling.

These decisions were made in the backdrop of the goals Australia has set in regard to plastic recycling. The Australian government has said that the new rules will cost the economy $1.1 billion over the next ten years, but the benefits of reducing plastic waste outweigh the costs.

As per the voluntary model that Australia has right now, only 18% of plastic is recycled in the country, far short of the 70% goal by 2025 that it has set.

Many have come out supporting this move; the Boomerang Alliance, a coalition of 55 environment groups, stated that this was the first “substantial and meaningful step” to address plastic waste in over 20 years.

It’s not just environmentalists that are lauding this decision, as major companies such as Nestlé, Coca-Cola, and Unilever have all come out in support.

 

For the People, by the People.

Serious change needs to be made in order to address the problem of plastic waste pollution worldwide. While it would be nice to believe that companies would willingly make the decision to cut back and recycle on their own, the reality is that it isn’t in their best interest to do so.

These programs cost money, and the incentive for shareholders is to increase profits no matter what. Government regulations will force these companies to accept the new way of doing things as simply a cost of doing business, thus ensuring that the people’s best interest is upheld as a primary objective.

Ultimately, this is what governments are for, and hopefully, with the example of these new plastic recycling rules in Australia, this action will spur other governments in other countries to make similar decisions.

 

 

 

 

Source  Happy Eco News

New York bans mini toiletry bottles from hotels, saving tons of plastic from the ocean

Posted on by dishanth
New York bans mini toiletry bottles from hotels, saving tons of plastic from the ocean

The State of New York has passed legislation that will eliminate millions of single-use plastic toiletry bottles from hotels. Bills S543 and A5082—led by State Senator Todd Kaminsky and Assemblymember Steve Englebright—prohibit hotels and motels from providing single-use plastic toiletry bottles smaller than 12 ounces in guest rooms. The hotels are expected to switch to larger, refillable dispensers, thereby reducing both the amount of unused liquids discarded and the amount of plastic waste generated during every guest visit. The new laws take effect January 1, 2024 for all hotels with more than 50 rooms and one year later for all smaller hotels.

Approximately 8 to 10 million tons of plastic ends up in the world’s oceans every year where it threatens marine life. In recent years, reports and images of suffering animals have flooded the Internet, many showing whales with stomachs full of plastic, turtles with plastic straws stuck in their nostrils, and fish wrapped in plastic six-pack rings. A famous photo posted to Instagram in 2017 showed a seahorse off Indonesia clutching a plastic swab in his/her tail.

 

 

“Reducing single-use plastics is vital in the fight against the climate crisis—plastic is a major source of carbon emissions and a financial anchor to the fossil fuel industry. This new law tackles the ever-growing problem associated with plastic waste and will prevent tens of millions of plastic bottles from becoming a waste burden in New York every year,” Eric A. Goldstein, Senior Attorney and New York City Environment Director at Natural Resources Defense Council, said. “The Kaminsky-Englebright toiletry bottle ban legislation is a step forward in its own right and emblematic of emerging efforts to break away from all throw-away plastics made from fossil fuels.”

 

Hotel chains ditch single-use plastic

Once it is signed into law, New York will become the second state in the nation to enact such a ban. In 2019, the State of California enacted a ban on single-use plastic toiletry bottles, set to take effect beginning in 2023.

In recent years, several large hotel chains have begun embracing reusable alternatives. In 2019, Marriott, the world’s largest hotel chain, committed to stop its use of plastic mini toiletry bottles in all of its 7,000 properties by December 2020. The company estimates that it will prevent around 500 million small bottles, or 1.7 million pounds, of plastic waste every year. The announcement followed a similar commitment by InterContinental Hotels Group, which owns the Holiday Inn and Crowne Plaza chains, as well as Walt Disney Co. and Hyatt Hotels.

 

 

By Nicole Axworthy

Source Veg News

New York’s plastic ban begins on March 1st

Posted on by dishanth
New York’s plastic ban begins on March 1st
  • A year after New York passed a ban on grocery store plastic bags — the law is going into effect on March 1st 2020.
  • Retailers violating the ban will first receive a warning, followed by a $250 fine, leading to a $500 fine.

Nearly one year after New York became the second state in the nation to pass a ban on grocery store plastic bags — the law is going into effect on Sunday.

In accordance with the budge bill passed last year, New York State retailers will be banned from doling out single-use plastic bags, starting on March 1. California and Hawaii already have their ban in place and now New York is one of eight states inching toward implementing the ban, as Gothamist reported.

 

York is one of eight states inching toward implementing the ban.
Image: National Conference of State Legislatures

 

Some New York municipalities will also charge a five-cent fee for people who want a plastic bag, though that fee will be waived for customers using food stamps to make their purchases. The five cents will be used as a tax, with two cents going to local governments, and three cents going to the state’s Environmental Protection Fund, as the New York Post reported.

The governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo, tweeted when the ban was first set to pass, “Plastic bags have blighted our environment and clogged our waterways. By banning them, we will protect our natural resources for future generations of New Yorkers,” as EcoWatch reported.

Now Cuomo is looking forward to seeing the bags gone.

“It’s no doubt that this is smart; you see these bags all over the place,” Cuomo, who added that the bags hang in trees like “bizarre Christmas ornaments,” said as WRVO Public Media reported. “I’ve been 30 miles out in the ocean and you see garbage floating and plastic bags floating. It’s terrible.”

The Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) has recently increased its efforts in recent days to help New Yorkers understand the new rules. The department has run ads on social media and videos on its website and YouTube channel, according to WRVO Public Media. The DEC is also distributing 270,000 reusable bags to low and middle-income families to help them ease into the transition.

The plastic bag ban will apply to all retailers that collect sales tax, including grocery stores and bodegas. The DEC claims that currently more than 23 billion plastic bags are used each year and only for 12 minutes, according to the state Department of Environmental Conservation, as the New York Post reported.

There are exceptions to the ban. According to Gothamist, plastic bags can still be used for:

  • Uncooked animal products or other non-prepackaged food
  • Flowers, plants, or other items that require plastic to avoid contamination, prevent damage, or for health purposes
  • Bulk packaging of fruits, vegetables, grains, candy, hardware products like nuts, bolts, and screws, live insects like crickets, fish, crustaceans, mollusks, or other items that require a waterproof bag
  • Sliced food or food prepared to order
  • Newspapers for subscribers
  • Prepackaged plastic bags sold in bulk, such as garbage bags, sandwich bags, or bags used for pet poop pick-up
  • Dry-cleaner or laundry service clothing bags
  • Pharmacy bags for prescription drugs

While the law goes into effect on Sunday, the DEC will actually not enforce it for a few more months as stores and customers adapt to their plastic bag-free shopping. Once it does enforce the law, retailers violating the ban will first receive a warning, followed by a $250 fine, leading to a $500 fine for subsequent violations in the same calendar year, as Gothamist reported.

Environmental advocates are pleased with the ban, but worry about a loophole that allows for thicker types of plastic bags. While they are not yet commercially made, environmental advocates worry the plastic bag industry will start to manufacture the thicker type of plastic bags.

“It was most unfortunate,” Judith Enck, who runs Beyond Plastics at Bennington College and worked at the EPA under President Obama, said to WRVO Public Media. “Why even open the door to that?”

 

 

Written by

Jordan Davidson, ,

This article is published in collaboration with EcoWatch

The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.