Across East Waste’s seven council areas up to 40 domestic side and rear loaders including the fleet of new Isuzu FVY 240-300 Dual Control trucks deliver high quality, efficient waste and resource recovery that adapts with growing South Australian communities.
Within the last week China has decreed that it will ban all imports of solid waste from January 1 2021 and told restaurants, e-commerce platforms and delivery companies they have to report their use of single-use plastics and also submit formal recycling plans.
China’s Ministry of Commerce said a nationwide system for retailers was to be established to report their plastic consumption. This will be part of a trial to encourage recycling, which will also mean firms will have to submit formal plans for recycling.
Country’s biggest challenge
Plastic pollution has become one of China’s biggest challenges, with vast amounts buried or dumped. The country produced 63 million tonnes of plastic in 2019, with a recycling rate of around 30 per cent. It produces around 20 million tonnes of single-use non-biodegradable material annually, including 3 million tonnes of shopping bags.
In September, the ministry said single-use plastic bags and eating utensils would be banned from major cities by the end of the year, while single-use straws would be banned nationwide.
Dealing with waste
In January this year, China’s National Development and Reform Commission issued new policy to be implemented over the next five years, setting out how to deal with the waste its 1.4 billion citizens create. The country said it would ‘progressively ban or restrict the production, sales and use’ of certain plastics while endorsing ‘degradable, recycle-friendly alternatives’, according to a document published by the Commission.
The Chinese commission also said the restaurant industry must reduce its use of single-use plastic by 30 per cent, and hotels have been told that they must not offer free single-use plastic items by 2025 – it is thought this will include toiletries. In 2008, China banned retailers from giving out free single-use plastic bags, and banned the production of ultra-thin plastic bags.
In 2017, the country announced that it would ban the import of foreign plastic waste in a move that has meant countries across the world have had to seek out alternative destinations for their waste.
Restrictions
Wang Wang, chairman of the China Scrap Plastic Association, said the bans would “only resolve the most visible types of plastic pollution” and were just one part of the country’s efforts to tackle waste, according to Reuters news agency.
From September, China has also prohibited some types of agricultural-use plastic film used to keep crops warm and moist. Chinese farmers use around 1.5 million tonnes a year, but it leaves residues that damage the soil.
A new “solid waste law” also came into effect in September, raising fines tenfold for those who break rules and mandating the construction of new recycling infrastructure.
As Australia celebrates the opening of State borders this week, a survey reveals that more than half of waste businesses in the UK have found their level of work lower than in 2019 after the impact of the pandemic.
The iugis’ Sustainable Re-set report reveals the nation expects more from governments when it comes to issues like fighting food waste. The study, undertaken by YouGov, surveyed both consumers and small business owners about their attitudes to sustainability and food waste. It revealed the majority (75 per cent of consumers and 64 per cent of SMB owners) are concerned about sustainability and climate change with around a third in each group even more concerned about these issues now than they were before the pandemic.
The Australian Resources and Energy Group AMMA has described the proposed Federal legislation for ‘Project Life Greenfields Agreements’, as a crucial industrial relations reform that will create jobs and economic growth by stimulating investment in the resources, energy and infrastructure sectors.
The Boomerang Alliance has welcomed the accelerating push across Australia to ban certain single-use polluting plastics with a new law introduced by the ACT Government today. The ban follows the recent South Australian law on these products, with Queensland and Western Australia planning to act next.
A group of environmental organisations has told the UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson that net-zero carbon emissions cannot be achieved if he allows continue development of energy-from-waste (EfW) plants.
Nominations are now being sought for the new-look 2021 WasteSorted Awards, formerly known as the Infinity Awards.
The Auditor-General for New South Wales, Margaret Crawford, has released a report that examined the effectiveness of the waste levy and grants for waste infrastructure in minimising the amount of waste sent to landfill and increasing recycling rates.
As the last mainland state in Australia to introduce a container deposit scheme (CDS), Victoria has an opportunity to make a real difference. The state’s future CDS could be the most efficient, effective and ethical in the country — but only if it is designed right.