The Plastic Smart Program, a joint venture between Garden City Plastics (GCP), Norwood Industries, and Polymer Processors, is driving innovation, sustainability, and growth in the Australian horticulture sector. This collaborative effort aims to establish an innovative infrastructure that enables the industry and its communities to consume and reuse plastic in a sustainable way.… Continue reading
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By Bruce Thompson
It’s all about supply and demand. With an oversupply of soft plastics collected and not enough of recycled products being purchased, we need to look at what is required to ensure the recycling program continues.
In late 2022, many Australians who had been diligently collecting their soft plastics and taking them to Woolworths, Coles and Aldi supermarkets to place into REDCycle bins, woke to the news that REDCycle had temporarily ceased their collection service.… Continue reading
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By Bruce Thompson
Australians produce 3.4 million tonnes of plastic each year but just 13% is recycled. And we’re above average because globally, only 9% of all plastic is recycled. With the future forecast of there being more pieces of plastic than fish in the world’s oceans by 2050, it’s a fate our quickly plasticising oceans seems unable to avoid.… Continue reading
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By Bruce Thompson
Encountering raised garden beds where corn, tomatoes, beans, lettuce and parsley are growing, isn’t something you expect to see when you’re offloading your truck full of recycling bin items at a Materials Recovery Facility (MRF), and yet this is the experience of truck drivers who visit Mackay Regional Council’s facility.… Continue reading
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By Bruce Thompson
As a waste educator who is also a horticulturist, the talks I give on resource recovery at Mackay Regional Council’s Materials Recovery Facility are very much skewed towards connecting people back to mother nature as a means of reducing what goes to landfill.… Continue reading
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