Monday 14th November 2016
Australian National Recycling Week brings a national focus to the environmental benefits of recycling. Now in its 20th year, this established and highly regarded annual campaign continues to educate and stimulate behaviour change by:
- promoting kerbside, industrial and community recycling initiatives
- giving people the tools to minimise waste and manage material resources responsibly at home, work and school
· Planet Ark’s National Recycling Week (7th -13th November 2016) is the annual opportunity for councils, workplaces, schools and individuals to brush up on their knowledge and become successful recyclers.
· Australians are willing recyclers with 90% of us agreeing that it is the right thing to do. However, recycling is a constantly evolving industry, with new initiatives and technologies in continual development which can lead to confusion about what can and can’t be recycled.
Planet Ark’s research shows that nine out of ten Australians see recycling as the right thing to do. The report also found:
· 8 out of 10 councils report plastic bags and soft plastics in kerbside bins as their biggest recycling problem
· 7 out of 10 people are unsure or not at all confident to choose between a sheet of 100% and a sheet of virgin paper
· The biggest barriers for consumers in buying recycled products include outdated ideas of its quality and simply not thinking about it
· There are 25.5 million unused mobile phones in Australian, more than there are people
· Often it can be more expensive to send products to landfill than it would be to recycle them
Soft plastics, the kind that can be scrunched into a ball, are among the biggest problems in the kerbside recycling system. Furthermore, 8 out of 10 councils consider them the number one problem as they get caught in the recycling machinery. This plastic is an essential component for the production of Re-Pal pallets, which are made of 100% recycled mixed waste plastic that would otherwise be sent to landfill. The Re-Pal business model promotes a circular economic system, which is based on the principles of re-using or recycling products rather than disposing of them at the end of their life.
The concept of using low grade waste or a low value product, like used soft plastic, to create a high quality, value-adding product such as our Re-Pal plastic pallets is known as up-cycling. Up-cycling is one of the fundamental principles that will assist in the transition to a circular economy, meaning that less waste is produced, less energy is used and the environmental impacts are reduced. At Re-Pal, we are very excited about how we can contribute to a greener world through upcycling waste within the new circular system.
