Lightweight plastic bags to be banned in Victoria

Single-use lightweight plastic bags will soon be banned across Victoria.

Premier Daniel Andrews has committed
to banning lightweight plastic bags.

The Andrews government has committed to outlawing plastic bags following the lead of supermarket giants Coles and Woolworths who announced their own bans earlier this year. 

The latest announcement comes after intense lobbying from environment groups who had been pressuring the Andrews government to adopt similar bans already introduced by other states.

The bans mean consumers will most likely need to bring their own shopping bags or buy other bags from retailers.

Read the story by Benjamin Preiss in today’s Melbourne Age - “Lightweight plastic bags to be banned in Victoria.”

New, improved, less energy and fewer carbon dioxide emissions

The new CSIRO magnesium wheel - super
strong, manufacture consumes less energy
and has fewer CO2 emissions.

It’s used to make our smartphones and cars, and it makes our fireworks go off with a brilliant bang. It’s the third most commonly used structural metal and comprises 2% of Earth’s crust. We are of course talking about magnificent magnesium.

Why do we think it’s so magnificent? Well, when magnesium is mixed with other metals it makes stable, super-strong alloys. Not only are these alloys used in our mobile phones and laptops, they are also highly sought after by car manufacturers who are turning to the metal as a solution for making lightweight, low-emission vehicles.

Australia is sitting in the driver’s seat to deliver new, improved, ‘supersonic’ magnesium metal and take advantage of our vast untapped reserves of magnesite. So we’ve decided to take the wheel and develop an innovative technology, known as MagSonic, which produces magnesium using up to 80 per cent less energy and up to 60 per cent less carbon dioxide emissions than traditional processes.

Read the CSIRO blog story - “Supersonic magnesium.”