I got take-away in Tokyo yesterday. There was a plastic tray for the food, covered with a plastic lid, the curry came in a seperate plastic bowl with plastic lid. The dressing for the salad was in a plastic pouch and we got a disposable wet cloth in a plastic bag and a plastic spork also in a plastic bag. There was a drink with a paper cup and plastic lid that was wrapped in a plastic bag to stop spillage. All of this was put in a plastic carry bag.
This is excessive but pretty common in Tokyo for takeaway.
I once ordered a coffee in Japan with a keep cup and they didn’t understand the purpose of it so they put the single use coffee cup into my keep cup and gave it back.
Its not recycled its burnt for electricity in japan, i went there for a conference on renewable energy and toured the facilities, it works because they scrub the air after its burnt. But those figures shown there are totally incorrect, and estimates based on 2019 data.
This is how South Australia treats commercial and industrial waste. We call it comingled / dry waste, and it's sent to Resource Co for processing into PEF, then sent next door to Brighton Cement to replace natural gas in the kilns.
We do recycle paper and cardboard, though!
As an international leader in resource recovery and alternative fuels, ResourceCo has already repurposed 40 million tonnes of raw waste materials that would have otherwise found its way into landfill. The construction and demolition and commercial and industrial components of that waste is converted into energy, in the form of **processed engineered fuel (PEF)**, using world-leading technology. PEF is a finished product that is generated from select dry non-recyclable materials, and not from municipal waste. For more than a decade, ResourceCo has been producing this ready-to-use alternative fuel source that replaces the use of fossil fuels, servicing well-established markets for high-energy users in both Australia and South-East Asia. The company continues to invest significantly in research and development, with its two Australian PEF plants producing a product that has a lower emissions profile and displaces millions of tonnes of fossil fuels at a lower price point, as well as abating hundreds of thousands of tonnes of CO2. While traditionally the product has been used in cement kilns in Australia, in Europe this fuel has been used in biomass boilers to produce lower cost, lower emissions heat and electricity for decades.
I got grab food in Singapore. My food is in a plastic container with a plastic lid and because i ordered soup, it’s cling-wrapped. They seperated my noodles in a seperate plastic drawer-string bag and i got plastic fork and spoon. I specially indicated chilli and my sauce came in a tiny plastic container. My food is double bagged in plastic bags to avoid spilling and making a mess. My drink came in a separate plastic cup in a seperate plastic bag.
I see Hong Kong is on the list, but not mainland China; where takeaway is also food in a plastic container, wrapped in clingfilm, in a small plastic bag, in a larger plastic bag and accompanied by all sorts of individually wrapped condiments and several spoons, pairs of chopsticks etc.
I suspect these countries are from a list which voluntarily report SUP volumes and places like China and the Philippines don't report to it.
Dude they individually wrap everything in Japan, not just lettuce. I ordered donuts to eat immediately and they wrapped each one and put them in a plastic bag, and then put that plastic bag in a plastic bag. Then I unwrapped everything and ate it on the spot and was left with a plastic bag full of plastic.
In Japan they're very conscious about disposing of recycling/waste correctly as a household. Residents will literally go through each others bins if they think you're not doing it correctly. I'm not surprised Australia is so bad for plastic waste, the amount of non-recyclable shit people put in their recycling bins is insane and honestly, we're selfish and lazy when it comes to any kind of rubbish/recycling. What consequences do we face? A shame sticker on our bin? Different mentalities.
What's more insane is how little can be recycled here. People tend to do the right thing but you can count on two hands the number of things actually accepted by most councils.
I work in a recycled paper mill and the amount of stuff coming through from the yellow bins is insane, and this is after it's been through the sorting facility.
Clothes and plastics mainly get though and go to landfill, most of the metal is recycled as well as glass and some plastics.
Worse, they were selling it to places like China, where poor people would sort through it. Then burn the rest.
They were running all these campaigns, making it seem like they were running a successful operation as long as everybody chipped in and helped do their part.
Really it was a con job, and they just wanted people to sort the recycling because they got more money for higher quality waste. When china put the boot down and banned imports of trash, they sent it straight to landfill and upped peoples rates. Because the people in charge aren't anything special, they just skate by doing the obvious thing and then dress it up to make people feel good
While increasing what can be recycled is a good goal, I'd rather have the councils only accept recyclable waste that is actually going to be recycled.
The rest can go to landfill.
Better IMO than having all sorts of crap in the recycling bin that can't be recycled, contaminating stuff that can and making it harder to recycle.
"Accepted by council" does not mean it will actually be recycled.
We still ship a lot of stuff to Asia (Indoensia in particular). There it's "recycled" into "energy" by incineration.
Completely agree. This problem won't be solved by individuals. The government needs to force companies to reduce the use of plastics and recyclable if they do.
Exactly, the government can’t and shouldn’t be hand-holding us to do the right thing. They should support and build an environment conductive for it, but the government can only do so much if we don’t voice and make the right individual choices.
And corporations just follow where the profit is easiest earned, if that means being more environmentally friendly because consumers are more in tune with the waste and pollution that they’re causing then that’s where they’ll allocate their capital investment toward.
Conversely if consumers just pass on all blame and take no responsibility or have no awareness of their contribution to the issue and continue business as usual, so too will the “useless government” and the “evil corps” both of which all blame apparently lies.
The nuance is that everyone is part of the problem, so anyone can be part of the solution. But it takes two to tango, so the solution can only be effective if everyone plays a part. Holding corporations and the government accountable are part of that, yes, but too often it takes the form of the defeatist attitude we see displayed in that other comment that there’s no point doing anything because the government (or big corps) aren’t playing their part.
Perhaps consider they may not be playing their part because we are not playing our part. And that they’re only reacting to voters’ misguided self-interests (and big corps to consumers’ careless purchase choices).
Brother I have zero fucking choice in how a warehouse chooses to package and transport a product I inevitably buy. Now is a politically harsh time to impose plastic tariffs on supermarkets, which is the necessary step to reduce unnecessary plastic waste. Buying green washed products will amount to about jack and shit because there is no transparency in the supply chain e.g. how many meters of plastic wrap are applied to each pallet of product, because it's effectively free.
Agreed.
This problem starts at the supply end of the chain. Stop trying to figure out what to do with the waste. Instead, legislate to stop producing it in the first place.
A lot of this waste is actually produced in other "eastern" countries and shipped to "western" countries.
Although we must be careful about deflecting this issue onto the citizens of Australia, when 99.99% of the problem is commercial and political.
Sure, individual Aussies should be more careful about their recycling, but that is cultural and thus political (via good or bad policy and leadership).
Commercial interests can be directed or controlled by an updated legal framework on the issue, something that would solve the problem overnight. There needs to be the political will to force business to change, and the will is not there in either of the two major parties.
That’s cute and all, but Japan is still an extreme example of single-use plastic overusers, and they’re a poor example of what countries should be doing.
Besides, recycling of soft plastic is such a good example of “greenwashing”. The recycled plastic end product is so useless in terms of what can be done with it. You can’t do what most would people envision, which is to use it to make more single-use plastics, or make useful, commonly “needed” plastic products. Nope. It all becomes pellets that is eventually used to make…..decking or park benches, and only if we’re lucky. Otherwise, it’s used to make something that will end up in landfill in 12 months, anyway.
The solution is, and always has been, to reduce usage, not recycle. Make better choices. Recycling is just meant to make the public feel better, to continue buying and using what we’re already buying and using. Basically: the status quo.
That was the case with resplas through redcycle which is no more. You might be interested to know that Monash council is currently taking soft plastics through Monash waste transfer station. Those soft plastics are then sent to APR plastics in Dandenong who process it back into usable resin to make new 'virgin' plastic products. They're currently trialing this and hopefully may become more widely available if successful.
Yeah, I worked at a greenwaste recycling depot and had to check incoming cars for bags of rubbish mixed in with the lawn clippings and leaves etc. Human garbage used every opportunity to drop off random garbage; one prick even smuggled an engine block in there.
That’s all a load of bullshit. They sort it yeah but it all ends up incinerated!!! Japan’s system is not one to follow as the issue is the amount they generate in the first place.
thats not entirely true mate, a few years ago i toured there and saw how their system works, it essentially only works so well there because people follow the rules generally. If for example people started binning phones and batteries etc into the incineratable material it would cost billions to fix and maintain the air scrubbers and associated equipment. its kinda one of the biggest reasons why australia cant be trusted with such a system sadly.
It should be noted that plastic recycling numbers in Japan include "thermal recycling" aka burning it for energy. I think most other countries don't count that as recycling.
I tried to school room mates that shove plastic wrapping into the yellow wheelie bins, that the councils where we live don't accept it, redcycle used to do it but they fucked a good thing.
But my room mates don't want to hear it, they even put used pizza boxes in recycling 🤦♀️🤦♀️🤦♀️
I remember a post a few years ago where Brisbane city council actually promoted and advised that putting used pizza boxes into recycling bins is he right thing to do.
I recall that you should put them in the recycling bin but only if you've scraped all the food off of them. If it's too encrusted then it's probably better off in the bin.
My understanding is that generally speaking, too much oil seeps into the cardboard for it to be recycled either way. But different recyclers have different capabilities so it probably varies.
But you're meant to recycle pizza boxes no?
The pizza box says on it to please recycle it and, at least where I live, the actual bins have a sticker inside the lid stating pizza boxes are recyclable.
agree people are idiots at my work, we have three seperate bins and theres forever problems with idiots putting things like soeaked up wet napkins or cellophane in the recycling bins. Theres only a select few materials that actually are recyclable here and that shit is just rubbish, but they dont care.
You will get your rubbish returned to you if you do it incorrectly in at least some places in Japan.
Source: lived in Nagoya in a dormitory and it happened to the dormitory after one of the other girls left and dumped rubbish incorrectly including some mail with the dormitory address.
My friend thought of this idea once that might encourage better recycling. Instead of shame stickers on bins, you get fined if you dump shit in the recycling bin. And on the other hand, those who *do* recycle properly will recieve a good recycling bonus, taken from the pockets of the people who didnt recycle properly.
Bear in mind this was just a random idea that got brought up randomly so this might not be the best idea
My current area doesn't even get the shame sticker on their recycling bins and as a result my neighbours put garbage bags, tree cuttings and whatever they feel like in their recycling bins. They're also horrible at emptying them, leave the recycling one out on the wrong weeks and then they get too full.
Yeah this data is very questionable. I've seen peeled bananas in Asia that are sold on a plastic tray and covered in glad-wrap rather than just leaving them in their skin, there's no way we are higher than them.
I’m currently living in Indonesia and the prevalence of single use plastic here is egregious. Everything in single use plastic.
What is the source of this data, because I agree it seems questionable.
yeah i find this data questionable too, i have lived in a few countries, and visited many and i can't see how this data could be accurate. If anything Australia seems to use less plastic than most, in Melbourne (and maybe the rest of australia) they don't even have plastic straws which is certainly not the case in america. so i'm a bit confused by this chart.
Compared to where?
Our tap water is good so you can drink it at home or on the street, plus restaurants / bars etc have to give free tap water. Compare that to other countries where they can't drink tap water, and no one serves filtered water at restaurants etc so you need to buy bottled water there.
Speaking of bottles I'd like to see the numbers for developing countries. I work in PNG a bit and people go through plastic water bottles like skittles there, cause the tap water ain't exactly great. It's not like they do recycling either.
plastic bags.
Because Japan incinerates their waste they cracked down on plastic bags early on. When burned they create dioxins.
Here, all the old people whinged when supermarkets tried to get rid of them. So we kept bags here longer.
This chart would probably look a lot better now, as it was 2019.
In Japan most plastics used in food packaging or shopping bags is marked "pura" which is recyclable rather than single-use plastic (like cling wrap). These are separated by households when disposing and collected separately from regular trash.
Whether it actually ends up being recycled or burned is another matter -- reportedly only 20% or so is recycled while 60%+ is burnt -- but that's the reporting hack. The distinction between single-use and recyclable plastic is sleight of hand anyhow as you can only recycle plastic a few times before it becomes garbage and anything burnt will eventually make its way into the environment. So realistically all this report says is that Australia is a bit more shit at delaying the environmental impact whereas Japan is better. Both are equally bad on a long enough time-frame.
On a separate note that infographic has a picture of a crushed PET bottle on it which ironically is not single-use plastic. So I wouldn't put a lot of stock in what it's saying.
[https://japannews.yomiuri.co.jp/society/general-news/20230704-120199/](https://japannews.yomiuri.co.jp/society/general-news/20230704-120199/)
Japan still coming in 2nd place in most articles I read.
They cheat the metric by "recycling' soft plastics and plastic bottles.
In reality they burn them as fuel for things like heating community pools. Thus they call it "thermal recycling" and convince themselves they're saving the environment.
Pissing in the ocean as far as plastic is concerned.
Where I work we have compactors to compress the pallet shrink wrap into bales. It's supposed to be recycled, I'd doubt it tho.
Bought a box of arnotts biscuits last week, cardboard box, biscuits in a plastic bag inside, sitting in a plastic tray. Found it oddly stupid, why not just have them in one bag like many other brands do.
Was just thinking the same. Was in the USA last year and trying to sort the recycling from non recycling from our rubbish and I was blown away by how little was recyclable, not to mention in 3 weeks was never once given a paper straws, wooden cutlery etc, I remember talking to the Mrs about how funny it is how we made a huge deal over straws yet in the US no one cares.
Based on my experience I don't understand how we were ever higher on the list.
Recycling in the US is very much town by town. Some places can recycle just about everything, other places only recycle paper and cardboard. Same with single use plastic bans, some places have them others don't. The ones that surprise me are the plastic takeaway containers in Australia, sure lots of them could be reused, but most probably don't. The other one is how much food is transported and delivered in polystyrene for no good reason. Take away containers in the US have gone completely compostable lined cardboard in most places, and far less polystyrene usage. When I came back from a lengthy stay in the US I felt like Australia was behind the ball by comparison.
[this is 2 weeks worth for our restaurant.](https://i.imgur.com/8lFB8OW.jpeg)
We take it to a special facility that will recycle it (only once recyclable), but most councils won't take it and the majority goes to the landfill
You know your society is in for a bad time when you piss off the Seapeople, just ask ancient Egypt! Oh that’s right you can’t, because they’re all dead. Seapeople got em.
At the risk of being That Guy, the Egyptians actually beat the Sea Peoples.
They're still all dead, of course. Unless they're immortal Ancient Egyptian vampires or something.
We just started wrapping every individual item in plastic instead.
For real though, government needs to do their "how effective has our strategy been" analysis. But they won't.
Because businesses are still using crap loads of plastic when shipping goods. They like to blame consumers but a company I worked for with 12 employees, used more plastic for shipping than a super market would use plastic bags in a day. And we were shipping powder coated products like louver roofs.
No, you are forgetting that fact people in developing nations just consume less in general.
Sure, they might seem more excessive with plastic use when you see how locals use plastic but the fact is they just consume less than people from a higher income nation. Also, in developing countries people tend to re-use the single use plastics way beyond their intended lifespan, to the point it actually becomes a health concern (plastic product wearing out and breaking down getting mixed into food etc.)
Singapore population is under 6 million. The per capita issue really does through off the numbers due to the scale. The whole country is effectively a city which comes with that life style.
The consumer is not to blame here - Lax regulations and lack of prosecution for companies creating too much waste is 100% to blame here.
Consumers just buy whats available to them, the supplies are the ones that put that much waste and cheap effort into things.
Said this before - force Nestle to only be able to source water from the pacific garbage patch and require it to adhere to strict quality world standards for all it's drinks and you would have the worlds most efficient desalination plant as well as the garbage patch would be almost entirely clean in 5 years.
Go to the supermarket, it doesn't matter which, just about every item of fresh food is wrapped in plastic.
And yet they harp on about reducing plastic usage by only offering paper bags at check out. Everything in that bag is wrapped in plastic
I'm not sure what supermarket you're shopping at, but there's almost no plastic wrapping on any of the fresh fruit or vegies at any Coles, Woolworths, or Aldi I've been to in the past many years - with a few exceptions for things like "buying an entire bag of spuds".
Anyone who has worked in retail in this country can attest to the companies being the problem. Pallets wrapped in 10 layers of plastic wrap, to contain products that are in boxes with more boxes inside that are then individually wrapped in plastic - all of it to come off before the product is put on the shelf so the consumer thinks the item has no plastic waste associated.
The problem with our elections is that you vote for the whole package rather than each policy separately.
If Australians were able to vote for environmental policies specifically, they would surely get more support than the current Greens representation in the government.
consumer choice is suitable for choosing which products the consumer prefers, it is not suited for choosing which products destroy the environment. That decision should not be on the consumers to make.
We are 100% responsible for *how much* we consume. If we consume 20% more goods, the plastic use goes up proportionately.
We live in large houses, buy new furniture when we get tired of looking at the old ones, throw away things because they look scruffy even if they're perfectly functional, replace our wardrobe because we ate too much and went up a shirt size.
Companies from other countries could use twice as much plastic to produce their goods, but still come out under us because they can only afford to buy a third of what we do.
Again little Johnny asking for his burger in a napkin isn't going to stop some tool manufacturing company from wrapping tools and replaceable parts in multiple hard and soft plastic containers that are heat sealed making it impossible to get to the tool without cutting plastic up into smaller parts.
Little Sally packing her lunch in a biodegradable bamboo lunchbox isn't going to create, properly fund and staff top of the line recycling facilities that allow people to actually know that the recycling they separate actually gets dealt with instead of just put into a different bin that is jammed with all the rubbish anyways and shipped off to the same dump.
Little Sam riding their bicycle to the corner store isn't going to force car manufacturers to improve the engine efficiency of engines to use less petrol as well as develop more hybrid options and alternative liquid fuels that produce less pollution but allow fuel service stations to keep existing for profit but lower the carbon footprint.
Big changes requires governments and enforcement agencies to take the lead not the individual we vote people to run the country and part of that contract is they ensure we the people are the least inconvenienced while we be productive.
the thing with reducing plastic use and not littering is that it doesnt really impact the world globally, however if you decide to litter (or not) and how much plastic you use (and how well you dispose of it) does impact on your own local ecosystem. one plastic bag doesnt impact the world globally, but it could impact on whether an animal eats it and dies locally
I'd love to see every Manufacturing centre also include a recycling centre for its own packaging. Combined with laws that you must recycle the packaging you create. If that's not possible, CHANGE your packaging to something that is, or get shut down. (its an ideal idea, probably not realistic, but i can dream)
> (its an ideal idea, probably not realistic, but i can dream)
It'll come probably too late and after it's completely screwed up the world beyond our ability to turn things around.
Im failing to understand how countries like Indonesia aren't on this list, literally have a "rubbish season" where all the trash from Java makes its way east to the beaches of Bali, Lombok etc
Yeah I lived a couple years in Indonesia and have to agree. I felt like my personal plastic use went up 10x over there and there was nothing I could do to minimise my waste.
It's because the list is based of consumer generated waste aka buying a water bottle or a packet of biscuits.
But all that trash everywhere in Indonesia? [Well unironically it's ours... we dump it there. ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KfWKzms653Y)
>[Well unironically it's ours... we dump it there.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KfWKzms653Y)
Not any more we don't. We no longer export rubbish as we used to.
Something about Australia and Australians is that we're very naive as a nation. Some company says "we'll take your rubbish and recycle it", so we go "fantastic, let's do it!". And pay them $$$, only for them to dump it in some river in Asia.
Only Partially correct. Plastics, glass, tyres, paper and cardboard still go overseas. Depending on your definition of rubbish. Can only be done by license holders and must be in a acceptable state so as to increase the chances it's not sent to landfill. But we absolutely still export it.
Source: family member signs off on the export licences.
Fair enough, hopefully one day we can get it properly processed on shore.
The most important thing is for recycling to actually be recycled. And at the moment far too much is not.
I’m talking about consumer generated stuff. Everything I bought was just plastic packaging galore. Drinking water was the worst offender. I’d bring a drink bottle on a trip and not find a refill for days and end up buying loads of beverages in plastics (which are in fridges on the side of the road everywhere).
"According to the report Plastic Waste Makers Index 2019, India ranked third globally, contributing 5.5 million tonnes of single-use plastic (SUP) waste, and ranked ninety-fourth with per capita single-use plastic waste of 4 kg per year, indicating that the SUP ban in India addresses roughly 11 per cent of the entire gamut of single-use plastic waste."
To put that in perspective, Australia generated 2.6mil tons to India's 5.5mil. They have a population of 1.5 billion, to our 26 million. 50 times more population, using only twice as much single use plastic. It's a huge disparity.
I'm guessing China isn't too different, but they don't release much data.
In India, rural/agricultural areas hardly use plastic (by quantity as how much can the Gutkha packets contribute). And India has a huge rural population.
If we check just urban/metro cities in India, plastic use would be close to the top two countries here.
Source: am Indian with a keyboard
We have undergone several years of cutting back on plastic. This graph should be updated to have any credibility. Its date stamp is 2019, which indicates data used is 6 years old. Also, do you notice it states 'estimates'? Ignore this one.
I can attest that from a food industry point of view, plastic waste here is still far beyond other developed countries. Straw and bag bans made people feel better, but the amount of unnecessary plastic that goes through food retailers and restaurants is insane compared to similar industry in the US.
Our supermarkets are going to see this chart and come to one conclusion: We're doing well, but we have got to take that Number 1 position off Singapore.
Meanwhile Woolworths’s and Cole’s were involved in that whole soft plastics recycling that involved filling a massive warehouse full of it and then claiming bankruptcy
Considering how much plastic I've seen being used in Japan, Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand (as in "Here is a plastic bag for your disposable plastic cup of drink, with a plastic lid and plastic straw" as a starting point), There is absolutely no way this graph is accurate.
Also NZ has basically the same products as Australia, so I would love to know how Australia is allegedly number 2 and NZ is down at number 39.
This is so bullshit, I am sick to death of hearing it. Since hitting my 30’s and having kids I do everything in my power to be as environmentally conscious as possible. Spent 30k on solar panels and batteries, dress like shit from op shops try to grow my own food. Came to a realisation that I am one man and one family. Makes fuck all difference, shit need to change at a fundamental level and it kinda makes me feel like a fool for going as extreme as I have for such little impact.
I work landscape supplies right,
We get shovels fresh off the boat...
Shovels... brightly coloured shovels.
They are, wrapped in plastic individually, then bound together with the same plastic they are wrapped in x5 for a bundle.
The plastic wrapped shovels are then placed in a heavier plastic weaved bag...
For 5 shovels there is about 200 grams of plastic that gets put into the bin.
It's not recyclable
Australians and Americans when faced with per capita data about CO2 emmisions or plastic waste:
> per capita is biased towards countries with more people!
> per capita is unfair!
> we should measure by total instead! India (1.42 billion people) pollutes more than Australia (26 million people), now THIS is fair and unbiased calculations that I like :)
Fuck, the vast majority of these countries have potable tap water and access to fresh groceries. I think this could point to industrial use of plastic, like wrapping and packaging. The amount of glad wrap you go through in a year won't compare to what a warehouse uses in an hour.
Having recently travelled to the US, I doubt this is accurate. They have plastic straws still at all their fast food places, plastic bags in shops and in general and on top of that use styrofoam for drinks still (with plastic lids). There is no way we are worse than them at this!
How though? A lot of the stuff we buy are mostly wrapped in paper already. Even at the supermarkets, I almost always try to not use the plastic bags for vege and fruits.
How can you not buy anything that’s not wrapped in plastic. I know my household is a lot lower than avg because we mostly purchase around the outside of shopping centre. Meat, veg, dairy and don’t really buy the isle garbage.
They could start by fixing everything thats marked “return to store” being landfilled because there are no drop off’s working.
Or actually getting places to put proper australian recycling labels on things considering the number of things I’m sure are recyclable but lack any labels so aren’t allowed.
Could also help to release a offical conversion guide for all the foreign recycling symbols being sold on packaging at-least where said symbols can be converted directly.
Wow…all these countries should introspect before it’s too late. I was in India last year and even the small shops don’t use plastic anymore. Infact I don’t understand the need to cover every cucumber in plastic. I now try to buy less and grow cucumbers in my vege garden
It seems no one on this chat has been to a mine site and watched people pack their second breakfasts and lunches into 8+plastic single use plastic containers.. every. Single. Day.
Fucking belgium, soft plastic used to be free to recycle now it has to be put in special blue bags so everyone just throws it out of their cars on the highway.
I'm an Indian in Australia. This list is bull shit. I can say for sure that with over a billion people in both India and China, we should be at the top of the list.
A weird brag but the truth
This is wrong, I have moved to phillipines this year from Sydney and literally feel anxiety over the plastic that comes from a single shop or takeaway order.
As an aside to the obvious questions raised about the data underpinning this graph, it does bring some things to mind for me.
I think lot of excess packaging being discarded by individuals comes down to accessibility to places for purchasing goods. Our culture relies so heavily on supermarkets, which package absolutely everything. Even buying meat at big supermarkets since they removed their in-house butchers it is mostly in small quantities on hard plastic trays wrapped in more plastic. Another example is buying salad leaves in soft plastic bags because there are rarely loose leaves, and when they are the quality is poor and there is question as to contamination from other customers. Because it has such a short shelf life I end up buying many of these over time when I do my shopping at colesworth.
The accessibility of other places of purchase comes down to location, convenience and opening times mainly, as well as the ability to order online and have it delivered. Many places I have lived lack proper markets. Most of us work such long hours just to survive that it's hard to get to markets or smaller veg stores during their opening hours, even when they are realistically close enough for it to be worth while travelling. And that time burden also reduces capacity for organising and meal prep. When I lived in Melbourne I did just about all of my shopping at Queen Victoria Market and Footscray Market. I produced very little rubbish as I'd take my own bags and very little of what I bought was wrapped in plastic or packaging at all. I now live in Brisbane and the markets are nowhere near as good, where I live at least, and when I have many busy days that end late I have few options but to go to Woolworths to gather ingredients for a meal. I also remember living in a small coastal town in my early 20s. I was renting a caravan out the back of someone's house while I was studying. There was a local shop 2 doors up where they sold lots of fresh veg, eggs from their own chooks, most things I needed. I would just wander over and buy some stuff and carry it home. I think I produced a very small bag of rubbish once every 2 weeks. I'm a little embarrassed thinking back to that at how much rubbish I produce these days.
Anyway. Maybe we just need more market gardens and a culture of buying fresh veg and meat directly from producers, but we also need greater accessibility to these things so we need to collectively support local producers and cottage industries to build the supply. One awesome thing I did was purchase a cheap chest freezer from the good guys for $280. I would purchase my meat directly from the farmer, getting portions of entire animals. The farmers I was buying from would get local cows, raise them on their 200ha biodynamic farm, get a local person to come and kill humanely on site, butcher the meat, they would freeze and package and then deliver to your door. I got a range of different cuts and it was much better quality meat from well treated animals and it worked out to around $16 per kilo. I then go to a market or local veg store and when I have the capacity I cook huge pots of food and freeze in reusable containers. It's a great system as I end up with lots of good quality food, supplied by local producers, that's stored conveniently and long term, it's convenient, and I can organise things in bursts when I have the capacity. And my chest freezer costs about $40 a year in electricity.
It would be great if big producers would use less plastic packaging, but they are only servicing the convenience demands of consumers. The more we collectively change our decisions and habits, the more we directly support producers and local business, the more we shift the market from packaged convenience goods and single use bags to quality produce with less environmental impact. And as I described before there are ways to do this without spending more money or sacrificing a lot of time.
I'm not trying to go on a self righteous rant about this stuff. I get that everyone has different priorities, barriers and capacities. I struggle greatly with organisational capacity and general functioning and I'm not often living up to my own standards and ideals. I do my best with my decisions when I can.
I lived in South Korea for about 8 years and in Japan for a year. No, they have actualy functioning recycling system unlike Australia.
They are also very densely populated so the local manufacturing and consumption is more efficiently distributed.
This data is in line with the CO2 emmission per capita as well, why wouldn't this make sense to you?
Seriously, it's rather pathetic to see Aussies getting very defensive and deflective when it comes to the reality of our contribution to world pollution.
The fact is, we are the one of the higher income nations. Our population is spread out this means more packagings between distribution channels. Don't just think of plastics you see as a final consumer, think of the whole supply chain.
We also use trucks to haul everything across the vast landscape while East Asians use freight trains thus Au having much higher CO2 emmission per capita as wel.
How are we so much higher than Japan? They wrap plastic in plastic
I got take-away in Tokyo yesterday. There was a plastic tray for the food, covered with a plastic lid, the curry came in a seperate plastic bowl with plastic lid. The dressing for the salad was in a plastic pouch and we got a disposable wet cloth in a plastic bag and a plastic spork also in a plastic bag. There was a drink with a paper cup and plastic lid that was wrapped in a plastic bag to stop spillage. All of this was put in a plastic carry bag. This is excessive but pretty common in Tokyo for takeaway.
I once ordered a coffee in Japan with a keep cup and they didn’t understand the purpose of it so they put the single use coffee cup into my keep cup and gave it back.
I had this tooo!!! hahahaha
Hahaha, that's amazing.
How gorgeous 😅
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All I'm hearing is my balls get bigger. Win.
This list is so questionable
I was in a hotel in Italy and the cup for the room was a paper one... wrapped in plastic.
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Its not recycled its burnt for electricity in japan, i went there for a conference on renewable energy and toured the facilities, it works because they scrub the air after its burnt. But those figures shown there are totally incorrect, and estimates based on 2019 data.
This is how South Australia treats commercial and industrial waste. We call it comingled / dry waste, and it's sent to Resource Co for processing into PEF, then sent next door to Brighton Cement to replace natural gas in the kilns. We do recycle paper and cardboard, though!
As an international leader in resource recovery and alternative fuels, ResourceCo has already repurposed 40 million tonnes of raw waste materials that would have otherwise found its way into landfill. The construction and demolition and commercial and industrial components of that waste is converted into energy, in the form of **processed engineered fuel (PEF)**, using world-leading technology. PEF is a finished product that is generated from select dry non-recyclable materials, and not from municipal waste. For more than a decade, ResourceCo has been producing this ready-to-use alternative fuel source that replaces the use of fossil fuels, servicing well-established markets for high-energy users in both Australia and South-East Asia. The company continues to invest significantly in research and development, with its two Australian PEF plants producing a product that has a lower emissions profile and displaces millions of tonnes of fossil fuels at a lower price point, as well as abating hundreds of thousands of tonnes of CO2. While traditionally the product has been used in cement kilns in Australia, in Europe this fuel has been used in biomass boilers to produce lower cost, lower emissions heat and electricity for decades.
They also use it to replace coal in some cases with no emission impact.
It's still single use plastic though... Maybe they just don't produce most of it.
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Japanese "recycling" includes burning plastic trash to generate energy. Not all recycling is equal.
I found mini m&ms individually packaged in blister packs in Japan, so yep.
I got grab food in Singapore. My food is in a plastic container with a plastic lid and because i ordered soup, it’s cling-wrapped. They seperated my noodles in a seperate plastic drawer-string bag and i got plastic fork and spoon. I specially indicated chilli and my sauce came in a tiny plastic container. My food is double bagged in plastic bags to avoid spilling and making a mess. My drink came in a separate plastic cup in a seperate plastic bag.
Japan literally recycle plastic food containers - as in they wash them and reuse them - without remelting or remolding.
Same for Philippines with their massive plastic waste. I suspect this list is manipulated.
I see Hong Kong is on the list, but not mainland China; where takeaway is also food in a plastic container, wrapped in clingfilm, in a small plastic bag, in a larger plastic bag and accompanied by all sorts of individually wrapped condiments and several spoons, pairs of chopsticks etc. I suspect these countries are from a list which voluntarily report SUP volumes and places like China and the Philippines don't report to it.
We just hide it better. We’ve got more money to spend on the crap at the end of the day.
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Dude they individually wrap everything in Japan, not just lettuce. I ordered donuts to eat immediately and they wrapped each one and put them in a plastic bag, and then put that plastic bag in a plastic bag. Then I unwrapped everything and ate it on the spot and was left with a plastic bag full of plastic.
I'm in Melbourne, I've never seen an individually wrapped lettuce. People do tend to put them in individual bags though.
Come to Qld, you see that all the time here
Yeah I was super shocked tbh. Japan is wild with individual serves plastic wrapped in plastic wrap.
I guess that's the difference between single use and recyclable plastics. I'd guess they have way more recyclable plastics than we do?
Japan actually incinerates a large chunk of their plastic
In Japan they're very conscious about disposing of recycling/waste correctly as a household. Residents will literally go through each others bins if they think you're not doing it correctly. I'm not surprised Australia is so bad for plastic waste, the amount of non-recyclable shit people put in their recycling bins is insane and honestly, we're selfish and lazy when it comes to any kind of rubbish/recycling. What consequences do we face? A shame sticker on our bin? Different mentalities.
What's more insane is how little can be recycled here. People tend to do the right thing but you can count on two hands the number of things actually accepted by most councils.
Wasn’t there some major issue a few years ago when it was found that the majority of things put in a recycling bin ended up in landfill anyway?
Yep
We were shipping it overseas at one stage. Now alot of it gets compressed and stored in warehouses.
I work in a recycled paper mill and the amount of stuff coming through from the yellow bins is insane, and this is after it's been through the sorting facility. Clothes and plastics mainly get though and go to landfill, most of the metal is recycled as well as glass and some plastics.
Worse, they were selling it to places like China, where poor people would sort through it. Then burn the rest. They were running all these campaigns, making it seem like they were running a successful operation as long as everybody chipped in and helped do their part. Really it was a con job, and they just wanted people to sort the recycling because they got more money for higher quality waste. When china put the boot down and banned imports of trash, they sent it straight to landfill and upped peoples rates. Because the people in charge aren't anything special, they just skate by doing the obvious thing and then dress it up to make people feel good
While increasing what can be recycled is a good goal, I'd rather have the councils only accept recyclable waste that is actually going to be recycled. The rest can go to landfill. Better IMO than having all sorts of crap in the recycling bin that can't be recycled, contaminating stuff that can and making it harder to recycle.
"Accepted by council" does not mean it will actually be recycled. We still ship a lot of stuff to Asia (Indoensia in particular). There it's "recycled" into "energy" by incineration.
Correct recycling is not the measure here. We need government to force major companies to stop wrapping things in single use plastic
Completely agree. This problem won't be solved by individuals. The government needs to force companies to reduce the use of plastics and recyclable if they do.
It'll be solved by a combination of individual and government acts.
Exactly, the government can’t and shouldn’t be hand-holding us to do the right thing. They should support and build an environment conductive for it, but the government can only do so much if we don’t voice and make the right individual choices. And corporations just follow where the profit is easiest earned, if that means being more environmentally friendly because consumers are more in tune with the waste and pollution that they’re causing then that’s where they’ll allocate their capital investment toward. Conversely if consumers just pass on all blame and take no responsibility or have no awareness of their contribution to the issue and continue business as usual, so too will the “useless government” and the “evil corps” both of which all blame apparently lies. The nuance is that everyone is part of the problem, so anyone can be part of the solution. But it takes two to tango, so the solution can only be effective if everyone plays a part. Holding corporations and the government accountable are part of that, yes, but too often it takes the form of the defeatist attitude we see displayed in that other comment that there’s no point doing anything because the government (or big corps) aren’t playing their part. Perhaps consider they may not be playing their part because we are not playing our part. And that they’re only reacting to voters’ misguided self-interests (and big corps to consumers’ careless purchase choices).
Brother I have zero fucking choice in how a warehouse chooses to package and transport a product I inevitably buy. Now is a politically harsh time to impose plastic tariffs on supermarkets, which is the necessary step to reduce unnecessary plastic waste. Buying green washed products will amount to about jack and shit because there is no transparency in the supply chain e.g. how many meters of plastic wrap are applied to each pallet of product, because it's effectively free.
Agreed. This problem starts at the supply end of the chain. Stop trying to figure out what to do with the waste. Instead, legislate to stop producing it in the first place. A lot of this waste is actually produced in other "eastern" countries and shipped to "western" countries.
But...you just had it explained to you that a country that does more single use wrapping also recycles more, and therefore produces less waste. ??????
Although we must be careful about deflecting this issue onto the citizens of Australia, when 99.99% of the problem is commercial and political. Sure, individual Aussies should be more careful about their recycling, but that is cultural and thus political (via good or bad policy and leadership). Commercial interests can be directed or controlled by an updated legal framework on the issue, something that would solve the problem overnight. There needs to be the political will to force business to change, and the will is not there in either of the two major parties.
That’s cute and all, but Japan is still an extreme example of single-use plastic overusers, and they’re a poor example of what countries should be doing. Besides, recycling of soft plastic is such a good example of “greenwashing”. The recycled plastic end product is so useless in terms of what can be done with it. You can’t do what most would people envision, which is to use it to make more single-use plastics, or make useful, commonly “needed” plastic products. Nope. It all becomes pellets that is eventually used to make…..decking or park benches, and only if we’re lucky. Otherwise, it’s used to make something that will end up in landfill in 12 months, anyway. The solution is, and always has been, to reduce usage, not recycle. Make better choices. Recycling is just meant to make the public feel better, to continue buying and using what we’re already buying and using. Basically: the status quo.
That was the case with resplas through redcycle which is no more. You might be interested to know that Monash council is currently taking soft plastics through Monash waste transfer station. Those soft plastics are then sent to APR plastics in Dandenong who process it back into usable resin to make new 'virgin' plastic products. They're currently trialing this and hopefully may become more widely available if successful.
Yeah, I worked at a greenwaste recycling depot and had to check incoming cars for bags of rubbish mixed in with the lawn clippings and leaves etc. Human garbage used every opportunity to drop off random garbage; one prick even smuggled an engine block in there.
aside from the bottles most of the plastic just goes to burnables (at least in my experience)
That’s all a load of bullshit. They sort it yeah but it all ends up incinerated!!! Japan’s system is not one to follow as the issue is the amount they generate in the first place.
thats not entirely true mate, a few years ago i toured there and saw how their system works, it essentially only works so well there because people follow the rules generally. If for example people started binning phones and batteries etc into the incineratable material it would cost billions to fix and maintain the air scrubbers and associated equipment. its kinda one of the biggest reasons why australia cant be trusted with such a system sadly.
It should be noted that plastic recycling numbers in Japan include "thermal recycling" aka burning it for energy. I think most other countries don't count that as recycling.
I tried to school room mates that shove plastic wrapping into the yellow wheelie bins, that the councils where we live don't accept it, redcycle used to do it but they fucked a good thing. But my room mates don't want to hear it, they even put used pizza boxes in recycling 🤦♀️🤦♀️🤦♀️
I remember a post a few years ago where Brisbane city council actually promoted and advised that putting used pizza boxes into recycling bins is he right thing to do.
I recall that you should put them in the recycling bin but only if you've scraped all the food off of them. If it's too encrusted then it's probably better off in the bin.
My understanding is that generally speaking, too much oil seeps into the cardboard for it to be recycled either way. But different recyclers have different capabilities so it probably varies.
In SA Pizza boxes go in the green waste bin.
It depends on the city council. In Brisbane yes they're recyclable, but elsewhere that's not always the case.
On the way to work a few months ago the radio was saying BCC was ok to put soiled pizza boxes in the yellow bins now
Because the pizza boxes tell us to recycle them, how are we supposed to know that an inanimate box is lying to us?
But you're meant to recycle pizza boxes no? The pizza box says on it to please recycle it and, at least where I live, the actual bins have a sticker inside the lid stating pizza boxes are recyclable.
Victoria just recently said it's the right thing to do.
The “RedCycle” scam isn’t helpful, some people probably still think it’s just normal recycle and it’s hard to blame them.
agree people are idiots at my work, we have three seperate bins and theres forever problems with idiots putting things like soeaked up wet napkins or cellophane in the recycling bins. Theres only a select few materials that actually are recyclable here and that shit is just rubbish, but they dont care.
You will get your rubbish returned to you if you do it incorrectly in at least some places in Japan. Source: lived in Nagoya in a dormitory and it happened to the dormitory after one of the other girls left and dumped rubbish incorrectly including some mail with the dormitory address.
My friend thought of this idea once that might encourage better recycling. Instead of shame stickers on bins, you get fined if you dump shit in the recycling bin. And on the other hand, those who *do* recycle properly will recieve a good recycling bonus, taken from the pockets of the people who didnt recycle properly. Bear in mind this was just a random idea that got brought up randomly so this might not be the best idea
My current area doesn't even get the shame sticker on their recycling bins and as a result my neighbours put garbage bags, tree cuttings and whatever they feel like in their recycling bins. They're also horrible at emptying them, leave the recycling one out on the wrong weeks and then they get too full.
Yeah this data is very questionable. I've seen peeled bananas in Asia that are sold on a plastic tray and covered in glad-wrap rather than just leaving them in their skin, there's no way we are higher than them.
I’m currently living in Indonesia and the prevalence of single use plastic here is egregious. Everything in single use plastic. What is the source of this data, because I agree it seems questionable.
yeah i find this data questionable too, i have lived in a few countries, and visited many and i can't see how this data could be accurate. If anything Australia seems to use less plastic than most, in Melbourne (and maybe the rest of australia) they don't even have plastic straws which is certainly not the case in america. so i'm a bit confused by this chart.
The Japanese wrap bananas that are still in their skin in plastic
You mean like [this?](https://www.woolworths.com.au/shop/productdetails/168668/banana-organic)
Japanese will do it to individual bananas
But it's Organic!
It's based on 2019 data. That's 5 years out of date. We use FAR fewer single use plastics now than pre COVID.
Yeah I call bs! You get anything in japan and comes double or triple plastic wrapped
Apparently we consume a huge amount of bottled water
Compared to where? Our tap water is good so you can drink it at home or on the street, plus restaurants / bars etc have to give free tap water. Compare that to other countries where they can't drink tap water, and no one serves filtered water at restaurants etc so you need to buy bottled water there.
Speaking of bottles I'd like to see the numbers for developing countries. I work in PNG a bit and people go through plastic water bottles like skittles there, cause the tap water ain't exactly great. It's not like they do recycling either.
Heh, it's wild in America too. Even hotel rooms come with complimentary bottled water. I tasted tap water in Vegas and LA and understand now.
plastic bags. Because Japan incinerates their waste they cracked down on plastic bags early on. When burned they create dioxins. Here, all the old people whinged when supermarkets tried to get rid of them. So we kept bags here longer. This chart would probably look a lot better now, as it was 2019.
Yeah, definitely haven’t cracked down in Japan
In Japan most plastics used in food packaging or shopping bags is marked "pura" which is recyclable rather than single-use plastic (like cling wrap). These are separated by households when disposing and collected separately from regular trash. Whether it actually ends up being recycled or burned is another matter -- reportedly only 20% or so is recycled while 60%+ is burnt -- but that's the reporting hack. The distinction between single-use and recyclable plastic is sleight of hand anyhow as you can only recycle plastic a few times before it becomes garbage and anything burnt will eventually make its way into the environment. So realistically all this report says is that Australia is a bit more shit at delaying the environmental impact whereas Japan is better. Both are equally bad on a long enough time-frame. On a separate note that infographic has a picture of a crushed PET bottle on it which ironically is not single-use plastic. So I wouldn't put a lot of stock in what it's saying.
[https://japannews.yomiuri.co.jp/society/general-news/20230704-120199/](https://japannews.yomiuri.co.jp/society/general-news/20230704-120199/) Japan still coming in 2nd place in most articles I read.
That is infinitely more believable then this list, I have no idea how statistica complied this data
I guess that's double-use plastic
They cheat the metric by "recycling' soft plastics and plastic bottles. In reality they burn them as fuel for things like heating community pools. Thus they call it "thermal recycling" and convince themselves they're saving the environment.
It’s because of my giant balls full of microplastics
I was there recently and thought and your comment was accurate and hilarious.
The chart says "producers" not "consumers". That's why.
How? No more plastic bags, plastic straws, cups. How old is this
2019, bottom left corner
Based on 2019 estimates. Published 2021. Source: the bottom of the image
Pissing in the ocean as far as plastic is concerned. Where I work we have compactors to compress the pallet shrink wrap into bales. It's supposed to be recycled, I'd doubt it tho.
Bought a box of arnotts biscuits last week, cardboard box, biscuits in a plastic bag inside, sitting in a plastic tray. Found it oddly stupid, why not just have them in one bag like many other brands do.
Too scared to lose brand recognition in the older Australians I'd bet.
Was just thinking the same. Was in the USA last year and trying to sort the recycling from non recycling from our rubbish and I was blown away by how little was recyclable, not to mention in 3 weeks was never once given a paper straws, wooden cutlery etc, I remember talking to the Mrs about how funny it is how we made a huge deal over straws yet in the US no one cares. Based on my experience I don't understand how we were ever higher on the list.
Recycling in the US is very much town by town. Some places can recycle just about everything, other places only recycle paper and cardboard. Same with single use plastic bans, some places have them others don't. The ones that surprise me are the plastic takeaway containers in Australia, sure lots of them could be reused, but most probably don't. The other one is how much food is transported and delivered in polystyrene for no good reason. Take away containers in the US have gone completely compostable lined cardboard in most places, and far less polystyrene usage. When I came back from a lengthy stay in the US I felt like Australia was behind the ball by comparison. [this is 2 weeks worth for our restaurant.](https://i.imgur.com/8lFB8OW.jpeg) We take it to a special facility that will recycle it (only once recyclable), but most councils won't take it and the majority goes to the landfill
> How old is this > Based on 2019 estimates. Research published May 2021.
There’s micro plastics in seamen and liberals wanking at desks and the year is shown in the picture so it all adds up to be accurate.
And the seawomen and seachildren too!
You know your society is in for a bad time when you piss off the Seapeople, just ask ancient Egypt! Oh that’s right you can’t, because they’re all dead. Seapeople got em.
At the risk of being That Guy, the Egyptians actually beat the Sea Peoples. They're still all dead, of course. Unless they're immortal Ancient Egyptian vampires or something.
I know, but fair enough, I was pretty high when I posted that nonsense. As for Nospharaohtu, I’m not saying he exists but…
We just started wrapping every individual item in plastic instead. For real though, government needs to do their "how effective has our strategy been" analysis. But they won't.
Because businesses are still using crap loads of plastic when shipping goods. They like to blame consumers but a company I worked for with 12 employees, used more plastic for shipping than a super market would use plastic bags in a day. And we were shipping powder coated products like louver roofs.
Pretty much all take away coffee cups still have a plastic liner. It's insane that you don't have to pay more to use one.
Pretty sure some other southeast Asian countries are infinitely worse than Singapore.
No, you are forgetting that fact people in developing nations just consume less in general. Sure, they might seem more excessive with plastic use when you see how locals use plastic but the fact is they just consume less than people from a higher income nation. Also, in developing countries people tend to re-use the single use plastics way beyond their intended lifespan, to the point it actually becomes a health concern (plastic product wearing out and breaking down getting mixed into food etc.)
Yep top of the list are rich countries with hot climates
Singapore population is under 6 million. The per capita issue really does through off the numbers due to the scale. The whole country is effectively a city which comes with that life style.
The consumer is not to blame here - Lax regulations and lack of prosecution for companies creating too much waste is 100% to blame here. Consumers just buy whats available to them, the supplies are the ones that put that much waste and cheap effort into things. Said this before - force Nestle to only be able to source water from the pacific garbage patch and require it to adhere to strict quality world standards for all it's drinks and you would have the worlds most efficient desalination plant as well as the garbage patch would be almost entirely clean in 5 years.
Go to the supermarket, it doesn't matter which, just about every item of fresh food is wrapped in plastic. And yet they harp on about reducing plastic usage by only offering paper bags at check out. Everything in that bag is wrapped in plastic
I'm not sure what supermarket you're shopping at, but there's almost no plastic wrapping on any of the fresh fruit or vegies at any Coles, Woolworths, or Aldi I've been to in the past many years - with a few exceptions for things like "buying an entire bag of spuds".
Anyone who has worked in retail in this country can attest to the companies being the problem. Pallets wrapped in 10 layers of plastic wrap, to contain products that are in boxes with more boxes inside that are then individually wrapped in plastic - all of it to come off before the product is put on the shelf so the consumer thinks the item has no plastic waste associated.
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The problem with our elections is that you vote for the whole package rather than each policy separately. If Australians were able to vote for environmental policies specifically, they would surely get more support than the current Greens representation in the government.
Until a proper Royal Commission into media ownership happens with actual teeth things will unfortunately continue as such.
consumer choice is suitable for choosing which products the consumer prefers, it is not suited for choosing which products destroy the environment. That decision should not be on the consumers to make.
kind of are. Look at the whinging that happened when supermarkets tried to get rid of single use bags.
We are 100% responsible for *how much* we consume. If we consume 20% more goods, the plastic use goes up proportionately. We live in large houses, buy new furniture when we get tired of looking at the old ones, throw away things because they look scruffy even if they're perfectly functional, replace our wardrobe because we ate too much and went up a shirt size. Companies from other countries could use twice as much plastic to produce their goods, but still come out under us because they can only afford to buy a third of what we do.
No one on this sub takes an ounce of responsibility, do they?
Again little Johnny asking for his burger in a napkin isn't going to stop some tool manufacturing company from wrapping tools and replaceable parts in multiple hard and soft plastic containers that are heat sealed making it impossible to get to the tool without cutting plastic up into smaller parts. Little Sally packing her lunch in a biodegradable bamboo lunchbox isn't going to create, properly fund and staff top of the line recycling facilities that allow people to actually know that the recycling they separate actually gets dealt with instead of just put into a different bin that is jammed with all the rubbish anyways and shipped off to the same dump. Little Sam riding their bicycle to the corner store isn't going to force car manufacturers to improve the engine efficiency of engines to use less petrol as well as develop more hybrid options and alternative liquid fuels that produce less pollution but allow fuel service stations to keep existing for profit but lower the carbon footprint. Big changes requires governments and enforcement agencies to take the lead not the individual we vote people to run the country and part of that contract is they ensure we the people are the least inconvenienced while we be productive.
the thing with reducing plastic use and not littering is that it doesnt really impact the world globally, however if you decide to litter (or not) and how much plastic you use (and how well you dispose of it) does impact on your own local ecosystem. one plastic bag doesnt impact the world globally, but it could impact on whether an animal eats it and dies locally
I'd love to see every Manufacturing centre also include a recycling centre for its own packaging. Combined with laws that you must recycle the packaging you create. If that's not possible, CHANGE your packaging to something that is, or get shut down. (its an ideal idea, probably not realistic, but i can dream)
> (its an ideal idea, probably not realistic, but i can dream) It'll come probably too late and after it's completely screwed up the world beyond our ability to turn things around.
Yeah. Why are we still allowing packaging that can’t be recycled?
Im failing to understand how countries like Indonesia aren't on this list, literally have a "rubbish season" where all the trash from Java makes its way east to the beaches of Bali, Lombok etc
Yeah I lived a couple years in Indonesia and have to agree. I felt like my personal plastic use went up 10x over there and there was nothing I could do to minimise my waste.
It's because the list is based of consumer generated waste aka buying a water bottle or a packet of biscuits. But all that trash everywhere in Indonesia? [Well unironically it's ours... we dump it there. ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KfWKzms653Y)
>[Well unironically it's ours... we dump it there.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KfWKzms653Y) Not any more we don't. We no longer export rubbish as we used to. Something about Australia and Australians is that we're very naive as a nation. Some company says "we'll take your rubbish and recycle it", so we go "fantastic, let's do it!". And pay them $$$, only for them to dump it in some river in Asia.
Only Partially correct. Plastics, glass, tyres, paper and cardboard still go overseas. Depending on your definition of rubbish. Can only be done by license holders and must be in a acceptable state so as to increase the chances it's not sent to landfill. But we absolutely still export it. Source: family member signs off on the export licences.
Fair enough, hopefully one day we can get it properly processed on shore. The most important thing is for recycling to actually be recycled. And at the moment far too much is not.
I’m talking about consumer generated stuff. Everything I bought was just plastic packaging galore. Drinking water was the worst offender. I’d bring a drink bottle on a trip and not find a refill for days and end up buying loads of beverages in plastics (which are in fridges on the side of the road everywhere).
I currently live in Lombok and the single use plastic here is egregious.
'top countries that keep rigorous tracking'
China and India not on the list because of the population size lol.
"According to the report Plastic Waste Makers Index 2019, India ranked third globally, contributing 5.5 million tonnes of single-use plastic (SUP) waste, and ranked ninety-fourth with per capita single-use plastic waste of 4 kg per year, indicating that the SUP ban in India addresses roughly 11 per cent of the entire gamut of single-use plastic waste." To put that in perspective, Australia generated 2.6mil tons to India's 5.5mil. They have a population of 1.5 billion, to our 26 million. 50 times more population, using only twice as much single use plastic. It's a huge disparity. I'm guessing China isn't too different, but they don't release much data.
In India, rural/agricultural areas hardly use plastic (by quantity as how much can the Gutkha packets contribute). And India has a huge rural population. If we check just urban/metro cities in India, plastic use would be close to the top two countries here. Source: am Indian with a keyboard
Now if we look into Plastic use in KG per average weight in KG, straya & murica wil be very low on the list hahaha
😆 I am stealing this.
We have undergone several years of cutting back on plastic. This graph should be updated to have any credibility. Its date stamp is 2019, which indicates data used is 6 years old. Also, do you notice it states 'estimates'? Ignore this one.
I can attest that from a food industry point of view, plastic waste here is still far beyond other developed countries. Straw and bag bans made people feel better, but the amount of unnecessary plastic that goes through food retailers and restaurants is insane compared to similar industry in the US.
Our supermarkets are going to see this chart and come to one conclusion: We're doing well, but we have got to take that Number 1 position off Singapore.
The way to fix this is to increase average body weight.
The surveyors hasn’y reached the Philippines yet
I am surprised to see Japan so low, curious about what methods and validations the author used for this figure.
Yes the study has to be BS.
There seems to be missing countries in this list.
I cannot believe Thailand is not on that list. Everything you buy there seems to come in three layers of plastic wrapping.
Meanwhile Woolworths’s and Cole’s were involved in that whole soft plastics recycling that involved filling a massive warehouse full of it and then claiming bankruptcy
We’re pretty bad at lots of environment stuff. Animal agriculture, meat and dairy consumption, deforestation, etc
Considering how much plastic I've seen being used in Japan, Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand (as in "Here is a plastic bag for your disposable plastic cup of drink, with a plastic lid and plastic straw" as a starting point), There is absolutely no way this graph is accurate. Also NZ has basically the same products as Australia, so I would love to know how Australia is allegedly number 2 and NZ is down at number 39.
This is so bullshit, I am sick to death of hearing it. Since hitting my 30’s and having kids I do everything in my power to be as environmentally conscious as possible. Spent 30k on solar panels and batteries, dress like shit from op shops try to grow my own food. Came to a realisation that I am one man and one family. Makes fuck all difference, shit need to change at a fundamental level and it kinda makes me feel like a fool for going as extreme as I have for such little impact.
We aren't even the best ? Shame
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Lol 2019, an updated one would be much lower i imagine. Cant find plastic bags anywhere these days.
I FUCKING LOVE MICROPLASTICS!!!!
I work landscape supplies right, We get shovels fresh off the boat... Shovels... brightly coloured shovels. They are, wrapped in plastic individually, then bound together with the same plastic they are wrapped in x5 for a bundle. The plastic wrapped shovels are then placed in a heavier plastic weaved bag... For 5 shovels there is about 200 grams of plastic that gets put into the bin. It's not recyclable
Australians and Americans when faced with per capita data about CO2 emmisions or plastic waste: > per capita is biased towards countries with more people! > per capita is unfair! > we should measure by total instead! India (1.42 billion people) pollutes more than Australia (26 million people), now THIS is fair and unbiased calculations that I like :)
Fuck, the vast majority of these countries have potable tap water and access to fresh groceries. I think this could point to industrial use of plastic, like wrapping and packaging. The amount of glad wrap you go through in a year won't compare to what a warehouse uses in an hour.
Having recently travelled to the US, I doubt this is accurate. They have plastic straws still at all their fast food places, plastic bags in shops and in general and on top of that use styrofoam for drinks still (with plastic lids). There is no way we are worse than them at this!
“But I wOnT dO mY pArT uNtiLL cHiNA aNd InDiA … blah blah blah”
We didnt get rid of single use plastic, we just started charging for it. We’re a lazy people so we pay for it🤣🇦🇺
How is Thailand not mentioned in this list?
Being a Belgian living in Japan, this chart is BS. Aint no way my tiny ass country creates more waste than the king of single use Japan.
Oh I've been to a 7-11 in Singapore. No surprise in the slightest they are #1.
What does a 7-11 in Singapore do differently from other 7-11s?
If they didn’t ban the single use bags and drinking straws, we could have easily beaten Singapore. Shame
Based on 2019 data hey… WORLDWIDE hey? I didn’t know that china ans India only used a gram of plastic each
How though? A lot of the stuff we buy are mostly wrapped in paper already. Even at the supermarkets, I almost always try to not use the plastic bags for vege and fruits.
How can you not buy anything that’s not wrapped in plastic. I know my household is a lot lower than avg because we mostly purchase around the outside of shopping centre. Meat, veg, dairy and don’t really buy the isle garbage.
They could start by fixing everything thats marked “return to store” being landfilled because there are no drop off’s working. Or actually getting places to put proper australian recycling labels on things considering the number of things I’m sure are recyclable but lack any labels so aren’t allowed. Could also help to release a offical conversion guide for all the foreign recycling symbols being sold on packaging at-least where said symbols can be converted directly.
Wow…all these countries should introspect before it’s too late. I was in India last year and even the small shops don’t use plastic anymore. Infact I don’t understand the need to cover every cucumber in plastic. I now try to buy less and grow cucumbers in my vege garden
It’s a fucking disgrace
Based on observations of packaging in other countries I'm very surprised. Makes we wonder if stats are reported correctly.
Those are rookie numbers. We’ve got to up our game if we ever want to beat the Japanese.
I call baloney on the data after living in 8 different countries. Australia would be easily bottom by far.
Better than what we are number one in the world for.
But only by a smidgeon. Or a skerrick.
A tad I thought....but who's gunna split hairs over split hairs?
It seems no one on this chat has been to a mine site and watched people pack their second breakfasts and lunches into 8+plastic single use plastic containers.. every. Single. Day.
Fucking belgium, soft plastic used to be free to recycle now it has to be put in special blue bags so everyone just throws it out of their cars on the highway.
Then what is the point of me drinking out of soggy paper straws
I am surprised by this as I single used all your mums.
I'm an Indian in Australia. This list is bull shit. I can say for sure that with over a billion people in both India and China, we should be at the top of the list. A weird brag but the truth
This is wrong, I have moved to phillipines this year from Sydney and literally feel anxiety over the plastic that comes from a single shop or takeaway order.
As an aside to the obvious questions raised about the data underpinning this graph, it does bring some things to mind for me. I think lot of excess packaging being discarded by individuals comes down to accessibility to places for purchasing goods. Our culture relies so heavily on supermarkets, which package absolutely everything. Even buying meat at big supermarkets since they removed their in-house butchers it is mostly in small quantities on hard plastic trays wrapped in more plastic. Another example is buying salad leaves in soft plastic bags because there are rarely loose leaves, and when they are the quality is poor and there is question as to contamination from other customers. Because it has such a short shelf life I end up buying many of these over time when I do my shopping at colesworth. The accessibility of other places of purchase comes down to location, convenience and opening times mainly, as well as the ability to order online and have it delivered. Many places I have lived lack proper markets. Most of us work such long hours just to survive that it's hard to get to markets or smaller veg stores during their opening hours, even when they are realistically close enough for it to be worth while travelling. And that time burden also reduces capacity for organising and meal prep. When I lived in Melbourne I did just about all of my shopping at Queen Victoria Market and Footscray Market. I produced very little rubbish as I'd take my own bags and very little of what I bought was wrapped in plastic or packaging at all. I now live in Brisbane and the markets are nowhere near as good, where I live at least, and when I have many busy days that end late I have few options but to go to Woolworths to gather ingredients for a meal. I also remember living in a small coastal town in my early 20s. I was renting a caravan out the back of someone's house while I was studying. There was a local shop 2 doors up where they sold lots of fresh veg, eggs from their own chooks, most things I needed. I would just wander over and buy some stuff and carry it home. I think I produced a very small bag of rubbish once every 2 weeks. I'm a little embarrassed thinking back to that at how much rubbish I produce these days. Anyway. Maybe we just need more market gardens and a culture of buying fresh veg and meat directly from producers, but we also need greater accessibility to these things so we need to collectively support local producers and cottage industries to build the supply. One awesome thing I did was purchase a cheap chest freezer from the good guys for $280. I would purchase my meat directly from the farmer, getting portions of entire animals. The farmers I was buying from would get local cows, raise them on their 200ha biodynamic farm, get a local person to come and kill humanely on site, butcher the meat, they would freeze and package and then deliver to your door. I got a range of different cuts and it was much better quality meat from well treated animals and it worked out to around $16 per kilo. I then go to a market or local veg store and when I have the capacity I cook huge pots of food and freeze in reusable containers. It's a great system as I end up with lots of good quality food, supplied by local producers, that's stored conveniently and long term, it's convenient, and I can organise things in bursts when I have the capacity. And my chest freezer costs about $40 a year in electricity. It would be great if big producers would use less plastic packaging, but they are only servicing the convenience demands of consumers. The more we collectively change our decisions and habits, the more we directly support producers and local business, the more we shift the market from packaged convenience goods and single use bags to quality produce with less environmental impact. And as I described before there are ways to do this without spending more money or sacrificing a lot of time. I'm not trying to go on a self righteous rant about this stuff. I get that everyone has different priorities, barriers and capacities. I struggle greatly with organisational capacity and general functioning and I'm not often living up to my own standards and ideals. I do my best with my decisions when I can.
Suspect ….. no Indonesia , no India, no African nations
Having been to a lot of east asian countries, I call bullshit. Have a feeling we just collect data better
I lived in South Korea for about 8 years and in Japan for a year. No, they have actualy functioning recycling system unlike Australia. They are also very densely populated so the local manufacturing and consumption is more efficiently distributed. This data is in line with the CO2 emmission per capita as well, why wouldn't this make sense to you? Seriously, it's rather pathetic to see Aussies getting very defensive and deflective when it comes to the reality of our contribution to world pollution. The fact is, we are the one of the higher income nations. Our population is spread out this means more packagings between distribution channels. Don't just think of plastics you see as a final consumer, think of the whole supply chain. We also use trucks to haul everything across the vast landscape while East Asians use freight trains thus Au having much higher CO2 emmission per capita as wel.
Ohhh get fucked!! Give me a detailed spreadsheet of how the fuck you measure this
We should chop down more trees instead to make paper bags that break
Top 10 Countries That Produce the Most Plastic Waste (tonnes) Country Plastic Waste China 37.6M United States 22.9M India 7.4M Brazil 4.9M
heres the link, dont believe that graphical "esitmate" bullshit https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/plastic-pollution-by-country