Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s War on Waste has thrust Australia’s waste management crisis further into the spotlight, lifting the lid on the volume of food and organic waste that ends up in landfill.
According to the episode that aired on 7 August, 60 per cent of household waste ends up in landfill.
Media attention has influenced a rise in cup-only collections, but BioPak says this is a temporary fix to Australia’s waste problem.
“The infrastructure required to collect a single item creates a burden on an already stretched recycling industry, and the trucks and specialised factories emit more carbon – cancelling out the benefits,” says BioPak CEO BioPak Gary Smith. “Ultimately, these reclaimed resources are either down-cycled or sent to landfill.”
Related stories:
- McDonald’s joins Starbucks and Closed Loop Partners to end cup waste
- Reusable coffee cup sales rise in UK on talk of waste tax
- War on Waste season 2 returns
- Sydney Opera House joins #SydneyDoesntSuck campaign to ditch plastic straws
- BioPak teams up with Perth cafés to launch coffee cup composting service
- BioPak completes the circle
- Takeaway coffee cups may be banned by 2023
In the final War on Waste episode this season, host Craig Reucassel investigated organics waste collection as a viable solution for diverting waste from landfill, reducing methane gas emissions, recovering resources to generate economic value, and creating jobs.
The episode also suggested composting as essential to winning the war on waste. Kiama High School demonstrated its efforts to reduce waste by using BioPak compostable packaging as a more sustainable option for single-use disposables in the school canteen. For example, BioPak’s plant-based bioplastic Biocup can be thrown in the compost with other food scraps and organic waste.
“We believe compostable foodservice packaging is part of the solution,” Gary says. “But not all councils offer commercial composting so, we launched the BioPak Compost Service – to ensure our cups and takeaway packaging, along with food scraps and organic waste, are diverted from landfill to commercial composting facilities.”
In the first six months since launch, the service has been rolled out across 1300 suburbs in nine major cities in Australia and New Zealand, and diverted 90 tonnes of waste from landfill in six months.
What are the benefits of composting?
- BioPak cups and takeaway packaging can be composted along with food scraps – all in one bin, no separation required
- Switching to composting saves on general waste bills – cheaper than the landfill levy
- Diverts organic waste from landfill and eliminates associated methane emissions
- Composting supports the circular economy – it returns nutrients to the soil
- Farmers need high-quality compost to grow food locally – it reduces the need for synthetic fertilisers and improves the quality of the soil
- BioPak compostable packaging is made from rapidly renewable sustainably sourced materials – it’s not derived from finite oil resources like conventional plastic
For more information, visit www.biopak.com.au
