WASTE MANAGEMENT IN ACTION – RECYCLING
Plastic wars has lessons for Australia
AORA advocates that Australian governments urgently ban singleuse plastics that are not recyclable, reusable or compostable.
THE AUSTRALIAN ORGANICS RECYCLING ASSOCIATION BELIEVES THAT FOUR CORNERS’ RECENT PLASTICS WARS PROGRAM CONTAINS VALUABLE LESSONS FOR AUSTRALIA IN BETTER MANAGING ITS WASTE AND RECYCLING TASKS.
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lastic Wars, a PBS Frontline production, was featured on Four Corners in August and provided an overview of the “disastrous state” of reduction, reuse and recycling of plastics in the United
States. The program illustrated how clever marketing campaigns were created to persuade consumers that they should carry the burden of plastic pollution by recycling, rather than expecting industry to reduce the
Peter Wadewitz says the circular economy works in organics recycling because it is the industrialisation of a natural process.
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amount of plastic it manufactured. The program suggested that tactics brought in decades ago are still fooling consumers. “At the bottom of all these plastic containers is this little chasing arrow – the little recycling symbol with a number…there are no kerbside programs that would accept any of these tubs,” an environmental scientist said on the program. The Australian Organics Recycling Association (AORA), the national voice of the organics recycling industry, believes that the Four Corners program contains valuable lessons for Australia in better managing its waste and recycling tasks. “Obviously, the story was specific to issues in the United States. However, it would be wrong to claim that there are no common issues between Australia and the United States,” Peter Wadewitz OAM, AORA National Chair, says.
