PROFILE: GCP
Plastic Smart Program a big hit with Victorian horticulture industry By Matt Ross The problem with plastic is that it is all lumped together into one category that comes with a negative reputation. But what if the story wasn’t like that? Most of the bad press is simply what the mainstream media has used to push a narrative that is ill-informed, and agenda based. Plastic is not simply going to disappear, but it can definitely be managed correctly. Not all plastics are equal. They are not all the same and they should be treated differently. A supermarket bag is very different to a tag or a plant pot. We can reduce the waste sent to landfill. We can stop importing more bio-products and actually use what we already have at our disposal. In treating plastic as generic, we are wasting opportunities. We need to treat it by code. The fact is plastics already exist. They are part of our everyday lives. We have spent energy making them and turning them into household items. How we dispose of them in order to reuse them is the real issue. It makes perfect sense to take something that already exists and turn it into a product so it can be used again, and again, and again. And that really is our ultimate goal. To create
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GROUNDSWELL DECEMBER 2021
Australian made, Australian bought and Australian consumed closed-loop packaging. What if there was a group of people and companies that are already doing the right thing? Who are trying to improve the way that we use plastic and how we recycle it. Who can actually take waste and turn it back into a usable product again. Garden City Plastics, Norwood, Polymer Processors, Astron and the Australian Packaging Convent Organisation have banded together with the Australian horticulture industry to ‘Be Plastic Smart’. “We are driven by the knowledge that every kilogram of plastic recycled is contributing to reducing waste that may otherwise go to landfill, end up in the oceans, or littering our environment. We have teamed up with other businesses who are equally passionate about recycling as we are,” said John Wilson, Polymer Processors. ‘Plastic Smart’ means recycling the polypropylene products already in existence into something functional and beneficial.
