Page 8 - Packaging News Mar-Apr 2020

8 NEWS | www.packagingnews.com.au | March-April 2020
Major announcements made at National Plastics Summit
INDUSTRY leaders gathered in Canberra at the National Plastics Summit to find new solutions to the challenge of plastic waste and prompt action from govern- ments, industry, and nongov- ernmental organisations.
Several companies made sig- nificant announcements in concert with the summit.
The Prime Minister Scott Morrison made a speech at the
summit and called for better kerbside recycling.
“When we take the time and effort to sort, clean, and dis- pose of something in the recy- cling bin, it’s reasonable to think it’ll be recycled – but only 21 per cent of plastic waste put in the yellow-lidded kerbside bins is recycled,” he said.
“We’re getting ripped off. There’s an implicit promise.
You’ve got the bin, you put it in there, and you expect the right thing to be done with it. It’s important that when we have programmes in place to deal with that material, that promise is honoured. Otherwise people will give up on it.”
Nestlé and iQ Renew announced they would collect soft plastics from more than 100,000 homes through kerb- side recycling in a trial pro- gramme. It aims to find a better way to collect, sort, and process soft plastics.
Sandra Martinez, CEO of Nestlé Australia, said the com- pany wanted to find sustainable paths to recycle packaging.
“While we are working to make all our packaging recy- clable, we know that soft plas- tics is an area that needs greater focus and collaboration. We need to find ways to drive more recycling here,” she said.
Sussan Ley, federal Minister for the Environment, said the pilot would support more sort- ing soft plastics, which have significant recycling potential. “The recycling economy starts here,” she said.
At the summit, Pact Group said it would invest more than
$500m in facilities in a move to lead the circular economy through investments in sus- tainable packaging, reuse, and recycling initiatives.
Pact Group is also investing further in innovation, technol- ogy, and materials science capabilities to enable increased inclusion of recycled content.
“Pact is already Australia’s biggest recycler and user of recy- cled materials in the Southern Hemisphere – but we have ambi- tions to go much further,” Pact Group non-executive chairman Raphael Geminder said.
Unilever will make it easier to recycle black plastics. At the summit, the company said it was making its black HDPE plastics with a pigment that can be detected by recycling plant scanners so they can be properly sorted and recycled.
This means an additional 100 tonnes of plastic bottles can be sorted and sent for recycling each year. The pigment is already used in the TRESemmé and Dove brands. ■
Pact Group non-executive chairman Raphael Geminder with Environment Minister Sussan Ley and others.
Ocean clean-up startup gets investment boost
SEABIN, a system for capturing maritime waste, including plastics, smashed its fundrais- ing goal of $1m in four days.
The Seabin skims the surface of the water in marinas and ports by pumping water through itself. It can intercept floating debris. It also has oil-absorbent pads that can clean petroleum surface oils and detergents. It is designed to be used in calm water environments.
Pete Ceglinski, CEO and co- founder of the Seabin Project, said it was “a bit of a shock” they had beaten the goal.
“We’re still processing it,” he said. “The majority of these investors are first-time investors. They are regular people with concerns about the environment, wanting to be a part of the solution.”
Ceglinski said there is a leakage in the waste system
that allows plastics and other rubbish to get into the water.
“Our thinking is that we shouldn’t have plastics in the water, we shouldn’t be throw- ing it away, but we should be using it,” he said.
A fleet of 860 Seabins are operating around the world.
“It’s a problem everywhere. We’re trying to turn off the tap with education and we’re com- mitted to cleaning it up.” ■