A solution for the recycling crisis: turn plastic into energy

Australia's recycling crisis needs us to look into waste management options beyond just recycling and landfilling. Some of our waste, like paper or organic matter, can be composted. Some, like glass, metal and rigid plastics, can be recycled. But we have no immediate solution for non-recyclable plastic waste except landfill.

A worker separates plastic bottles at a recycling depot in Beijing.

At a meeting last month, federal and state environment ministers endorsed an ambitious target to make all Australian packaging recyclable, compostable or reusable by 2025. But the ministers also showed support for processes to turn our waste into energy, although they did not specifically discuss plastic waste as an energy source.

Read Muxina Konarova’s comment in The Age - “A solution for the recycling crisis: turn plastic into energy.”

Sweden has much to teach about governance and creating a cleaner country

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weden has much to teach us about governance and ensuring we live in a cleaner country.

Sitting here, reading and posting this I can hear, in the background, Australia’s parliament careering into seriously undisciplined discussion that is about scoring political points, rather than working together to make Australia a better place to live.

Sweden is one of the leading countries in the development, implementation, and export of environmental technology.

The success is including high standards of sanitation, waste management and stringent rules against the emission of environmentally harmful substances

A quick look at Sweden’s caring development can be seen here; “Sweden's Eco history - how a small country became big in clean tech!”

 

Robert McLean