CategoriesSingle Use Plastics
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Victoria to ban single-use plastics within two years


Single-use plastic items including straws, cutlery and plates will be banned in Victoria in a bid to reduce the amount of plastic waste going into landfill.Other items to be phased out over the next two years include drink stirrers, polystyrene food and drink containers and cotton buds.


Lily D’Ambrosio, Victoria’s minister for energy, environment and climate change, in Station Street, Fairfield on Saturday.Lily D’Ambrosio, Victoria’s minister for energy, environment and climate change, in Station Street, Fairfield on Saturday.

“Our announcement will go to the very heart of taking action to reduce the amount of single-use plastics we have in our environment.”

D’Ambrosio said single-use plastic items also made up one third of the state’s litter and Victoria could do better.“We know that single-use plastics can have devastating impacts on our wildlife, our marine life and our aquatic life,” Ms D’Ambrosio said.


“Our announcement will go to the very heart of taking action to reduce the amount of single-use plastics we have in our environment.”

The government will spend the next two years deciding on the alternatives businesses can use and whether replacement items will need to be fully biodegradable or recyclable.


Ms D’Ambrosio said hospitality businesses would be encouraged to transition to “viable alternatives” but was unable to say what kind of financial assistance would be available to the hospitality sector to help cover the cost.


Supermarket giant Coles is removing plastic cutlery, plates and cups from its shelves three years after banning single use plastic bags in response to overwhelming customer feedback.


Business owner Amanda Beloe, who runs plant-based cafe Mamma Says in Fairfield, said the cost of transitioning to plastic-free alternatives would be felt by her business but said there was a cost to the future in not acting immediately.


“We are not yet a plastic-free venue. However, it is one of our main goals to become that over the next 12 months,” she said.

“We see already the damage that it creates in our wildlife, and our streets and our future … we want to stop it now.”


Ms Beloe said her business had already been approached by plastic-free manufacturers and said the cafe would be willing to switch to fully sustainable packaging if the price was right.


The state government hopes the two-year timeline to phase out select plastic items would encourage manufacturers to offer more plastic-free options.


Ms D’Ambrosio said some form of assistance would be available for the hospitality sector but refused to say whether financial support would be offered to restaurants and cafes forced to phase out cheaper plastic products.


“We will work with industry through this period to assist with the transition,” she said.


“I am not hear to make any announcements today on that front but, as I have said we are 100 per cent committed to working with those businesses, listening and making it as easy as possible to transition,” she said.


She was also unable to confirm whether her Department had modelled the impact on small businesses such as cafes and take away restaurants caught up in the ban but said the government had consulted extensively.


She said businesses that go plastic-free can use it as a “selling point”.


The state government is yet to decided what penalties will apply or how the ban will be enforced.


“The transition process will include full consultation about how do we make sure we make sure these items cease to be supplied and sold in Victoria,” she said.


“At some point we will be looking at how we give effect to this ban.”


The government will work with the aged care and disability sectors to make sure there are exemptions for residents who require some single-use plastics such as straws.


All Victorian government departments and agencies will stop using the banned items a year ahead of the state-wide ban.


Credits & Source : 

https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/victoria-to-ban-single-use-plastics-within-two-years-20210227-p576cs.html

 

CategoriesUncategorized
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Pressure mounts to broaden ban on plastic cotton buds

Water authorities around Australia say people flushing cotton buds down the toilet are creating one of their biggest headaches for sewage treatment, fuelling calls for a national ban on the plastic-stemmed swabs.

In NSW, Premier Glady Berejiklian’s government is poised to reveal its long-delayed plastics policy in coming months. It remains unclear if the buds will be on the initial list of banned single-use plastic products.

NSW Environment Minister Matt Kean with Water Minister Melinda Pavey during a tour this week of one of Sydney Water’s wastewater treatment plants.
NSW Environment Minister Matt Kean with Water Minister Melinda Pavey during a tour this week of one of Sydney Water’s wastewater treatment plants.CREDIT:JANIE BARRETT

Victoria’s Daniel Andrews government has included plastic cotton bud sticks in its ban on single-use plastics by 2023, while several other states have pledged to ban them. Some major suppliers, such as Johnson & Johnson, have stopped sales of the products, as have major supermarket chains.

Maryanne Graham, a general manager at Sydney Water, this week told visitors to the utility’s Malabar Wastewater Treatment Plant that the shape of the cotton buds and the buoyancy of the plastic variety meant they were harder than most waste to filter.

“Two of the biggest causes of damage to our networks are caused by wet wipes and cotton buds being flushed down the toilet,” Ms Graham said. “These seemingly harmless single-use toiletries are not bio-degradable and do not dissolve like toilet paper does.

“Unfortunately, [the buds] combine with fats and oils and other debris to cause large obstructions in pipes and that leads to burst pipes and back flows into people’s homes,” she said. ”Cotton buds and wet wipes also damage our screening equipment, so we ask people to dispose of them in the recycling or rubbish bin.”

Plastic stems of cotton buds caught up in Sydney Water’s wastewater treatment works.
Plastic stems of cotton buds caught up in Sydney Water’s wastewater treatment works. CREDIT:MARYANNE GRAHAM/SYDNEY WATER

Consumer product giants such as Johnson & Johnson began phasing out plastic-stemmed swabs years ago, replacing them with the paper varieties in Britain from April 2017. The company also stopped the sale of plastic sticks in Australia and New Zealand from mid-2019.

Groups such as Victoria-based Better Buds have joined the call for a ban on plastic stems after collecting almost 24,000 cotton buds over the past 30 months from a beach near an ocean outfall at Warrnambool. The town in the state’s far west has a population of about 30,000.

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“We need plastic-stemmed cotton buds off our shelves and off our beaches,” said Colleen Hughson, a campaign manager for Better Buds. “It’s pretty horrible.”

Aldi, Coles and lately Woolworths have vowed to remove the plastic varieties from their offerings.

“They have been a lot quicker to act than our governments,” Ms Hughson said.

A cotton bud filtered out of waste material at SydneyWater’s Malabar Treatment Plant. After wipes, cotton buds are viewed by staff as the second-worst polluting waste product that turns up in their system.
A cotton bud filtered out of waste material at SydneyWater’s Malabar Treatment Plant. After wipes, cotton buds are viewed by staff as the second-worst polluting waste product that turns up in their system.CREDIT:JANIE BARRETT

NSW Environment Minister Matt Kean said his visit to the Malabar facility gave him a first-hand look at the problem.

’There is far too much plastic getting into our environment, including our wastewater,” Mr Kean said. “I want to see manufacturers leading by example and reducing the amount of plastic they use.”

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His Victorian counterpart Lily D’Ambrosio said her state would ban plastic stems from sale or supply from 2023.

“By banning single-use plastics – from plastic cutlery and straws to cotton bud sticks – we will reduce the waste going to landfill, while also protecting the environment and waterways from this kind of pollution,” she said.

Jeff Angel, director of the Boomerang Alliance, said clean-up groups were increasingly reporting ugly evidence of plastic pollution and states should accelerate plans to ban the waste.

Water treatment plants around Australia are battling increased loads of difficult to treat material such as wipes, cotton buds and other refuse.
Water treatment plants around Australia are battling increased loads of difficult to treat material such as wipes, cotton buds and other refuse.CREDIT:WATER SERVICES ASSOCIATION OF AUSTRALIA

“Given it’s a very expensive and slow process to upgrade the sewerage plants and there are easily available alternatives replacing plastic with bamboo – the NSW government should ban the plastic Q-tips by the end of 2021 along with other priority single-use items,” Mr Angel said.

Adam Lovell, executive director of the Water Services Association of Australia, said his group had been working with Standards Australia, utilities and manufacturers to finalise a guide for what can be flushed down the toilet.

Utilities have reported a rise of as much as 60 per cent in blockages as people tossed more of their waste down the toilets during the pandemic.
Utilities have reported a rise of as much as 60 per cent in blockages as people tossed more of their waste down the toilets during the pandemic.CREDIT:WATER SERVICES ASSOCIATION OF AUSTRALIA

“The number of blockages and the costs of removing them has been increasing, with a noticeable rise in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic with people flushing materials never intended to go down the toilet like paper towel and wet wipes, he said. “Utilities were reporting between 20 and 60 per cent increases in blockages at the height of the pandemic last year.”

Clarification: An early version of this article said the NSW government was poised to ban the cotton buds. The article should have read the policy is close to being released but clarified that it is yet to decide to include plastic-stemmed buds on the list of restricted single-use plastic items.