It’s time for small businesses to cut back on plastic waste, says Planet Ark

With Australian businesses producing more than half of all plastic waste in Australia, Planet Ark is urging business owners to do their best to cut, reuse and recycle.

Currently, Australian companies send more than a million tons of plastic waste to landfills each year. The How to cut and recycle plastic at work The Guide is an online tool designed to help Australian businesses reduce plastic waste.

The guide is suitable for any business or workplace where plastic is used, but Planet Ark CEO Rebecca Gilling says the guide will be especially useful for small businesses to help them improve the management and use of plastic products.

War with plastic

“Australians are very concerned about plastic pollution, both in terms of the impact on our beautiful natural environment and in terms of overall waste generation,” Gilling said.

“We created this guide to make it easier for businesses across the country to take responsibility and reduce, reuse and recycle plastic in the workplace.”

Opportunity for businesses to reduce waste

Gilling said businesses have the opportunity to improve the management of plastics through reuse and recycling.

“It will boost our economy, provide greener jobs and conserve our natural resources.”

Businesses and workplaces play an important role in tackling plastic in Australia by storing these valuable materials for reuse and preventing them from being dumped. The guide comes at a time when state governments across Australia are releasing disposable plastic bags to combat the pollution of plastic in the environment and the amount of plastic that is sent to landfills.

According to the latest National Waste Report published in 2020, there are now more than 50 million tonnes of plastic in Australian landfills, with around 1.2 million tonnes of plastic out of the 2.1 million tonnes added per year being created by businesses. Perhaps even more concerned in terms of the environment, seven of the top ten garbage collected from the country’s largest waterways are plastic.

How to cut and recycle plastic at work provides simple solutions to the top ten plastic products used at work, enabling businesses to reduce their plastic impact and potentially reduce waste management costs. The guide also provides case studies of Australian companies advocating for plastic waste reduction, how to use the waste hierarchy at work, as well as information on plastic recycling and plastic identification codes.

How to cut and recycle plastic at work fully available at: businessrecycling.com.au/research/reduce_recycle_plastics

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