Plastic Waste Management Strategies
Australia has been moving towards using as little amounts of plastic a possible by having most big brand stores (mostly grocery stores) sell multiple-use bags and stop using single-use plastic bags. It is said that by 2025, 70% of Australia's plastic packaging would be recycled or composted. 100% of all Australia's packaging will be reusable, recyclable or compostable by 2025 or even earlier. In the beginning, many people (mostly facebook mums) were frustrated and hated this new idea but no matter what people think about the multiple-use bags, they are doing great for the environment and Australia is doing fine with the plastic waste minimalising.
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Compared to Germany and its plastic waste management, Australia can not compare. Germany has the best recycling rate in the world with a 56.1% recyclable rate. The thing that all of the countries with the highest recycling rate is their government encourages recycling by making it easy for households to recycle waste; good funding for recycling; and financial incentives. Although Germany produces 30 million tons of garbage every year their system has been one of the most successful recycling initiatives, which has literally put packaging on a diet. It is called The Green Dot System. This system has led to less paper, thinner glass and less metal being used, therefore, creating less garbage to be recycled.
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While Germany is ranked 1st on the recycling rate, Australia is ranked 21st. It may not be as bad as many other countries but when it is compared to what Germany, Austria, South Korea, Wales and others do, Australia doesn't do that much for the oceans.
Seabins
There are many technologies that people are trialling using that would help with cleaning our oceans. One technology is the 'seabin' and when asked how it works, Porto Montenegro Marina Manager, Roddy Blair said “Water is sucked in from the surface and passes through a catch bag inside the Seabin, with a submersible water pump capable of displacing 25.000 litres per hour, plugged directly into 110/220 volt outlet. The water is then pumped back into the marina leaving litter and debris trapped in the catch bag.” This is a very good and easy device to use to clean small areas of the ocean but it isn't good enough to make a huge impact on the cleanliness of the ocean unless they get enough donations to make more and more people volunteer to help use them.
The Ocean Cleanup
The Ocean Cleanup is an ocean cleaning method that as given $30 million in funding and is led by 22-year-old Boyan Slat. This foundation’s ingenious solution is based on the understanding that ocean currents tend to gather the plastic into oceanic garbage patches. Their technology corners floating plastic in these ocean currents with U-shaped screens. When the plastic is trapped, they gather it up and ship it away to be recycled.
Recycling Technologies
Currently, there is a British company recycling technology that is meant to gather all formats of plastic and turn them into virgin plastic, wax and oils. This method includes materials that are previously known to not be recyclable. This company has funded millions of dollars over its goal amount and plans to use these funds in order to add 10 million tons of plastic recycling capacity worldwide by 2027.
5 Gyres Institute
This method is based around trying to convince people in power like politicians and people in power to stop emissions at the source. Founder Marcus Eriksen says, “It’s far upstream trying to stop this flow of trash to sea. If you pick up what’s out there, you’re not stopping the problem continuing far into the future. You’ve got to stop the source.”
