UP FRONT
Recycling symbol: is it cynical? INFORMATION ON CONSUMER PRODUCTS AND PACKAGING IS SHINING THE SPOTLIGHT ON RECYCLING OPERATIONS ACROSS AUSTRALIA. WASTE MANAGEMENT REVIEW SPEAKS WITH INDUSTRY TO DISCUSS CONSUMER CONFUSION AND ACHIEVING LABELLING CONSISTENCY. Pete Shmigel says recycling logos are inconsistent and trigger consumer confusion.
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re Australia’s recycling operations and packaging fooling consumers? Environmental groups and industry insiders have recently been speaking out about the cynicism at the heart of consumer focused recycling strategies. An independent audit commissioned by the Australian Council of Recycling (ACOR) has fuelled conversation surrounding current recycling labels. Pete Shmigel, ACOR CEO, told
Waste Management Review that Australia is better than it’s ever been in terms of policy, investment and stakeholder engagement. Shmigel commented that sensationalist views that reflect an antirecycling narrative are disappointing, with ACOR and other industry associations focussed on improving plastic packaging recycling from less than 20 per cent at present, to ambitious and unprecedented national
targets, such as 70 per cent recycling of plastic packaging and 30 per cent recycled content for PET and HDPE. Shmigel says the sector agrees that recycling labels on products – while somewhat improved in the recent era – need to significantly improve. CONSUMER CONFUSION On August 20 this year, ACOR released findings from an independent national audit of recycling information on consumer products and packaging. “The audit shows a dog’s breakfast of consumer information about what products and packaging components are or aren’t recyclable,” Shmigel says. He adds that the “the dog’s breakfast” undoubtedly leads to some material going to the wrong place such as recyclables to waste bins and nonrecyclables to recycling bins. “That means recycling rates that aren’t as high as they could be, contamination that is too high, and it’s harder to achieve national targets such as 70 per cent plastics recycling (from our current 12 per cent).” Additionally, the audit found that 55 per cent of imported products and 64 per cent of Australian sampled products displayed a recyclability claim, including 23 per cent with the Australasian Recycling Label (ARL), 29 per cent with a Mobius Loop recycling
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