The end of a year is always a great time to do a bit of a review of what has happened, what we have learnt and what we have achieved. Equally, reflecting into next year, 2019 will see some new challenges and opportunities in waste and resource recovery.
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We started 2018 with the impact of China’s National Sword Policy on our recycling systems across the country and indeed around the world. Without a doubt, we have learnt a lot about contracts, service delivery, where our recycling goes, business models for recyclable material and what are the problem materials. We also learnt that we need to do more to make it easier for people in our community to get their recycling right. This year will see us all working even harder to improve our recycling systems and community education.
Single-use plastics also made a big splash in 2018. Plastic Free July really hit home and along with the decision by the two major supermarkets to ban the lighter weight, free single-use plastic bags, we all started to realise how big a problem single-use plastic really was. Whether they be light weight shopping bags, coffee cups, straws, single-use drink bottles, balloons, plastic cutlery – 2019 is the time to kick the single-use plastic habit – so expect to hear a lot more on this.
The Victorian government announced that there would be a ban on e-waste going to landfill from July 1, 2019. E-waste, you might ask? What is it? Essentially it is everything that has a cord or a battery. Everyone will be hearing a lot about this in 2019 as we work hard to engage our communities on how and where you need to dispose of these items.
Organic waste remains one of the biggest challenges and opportunities to reduce what we send to landfill. If we can establish the right sort of collection process for large regional areas, then we can develop the optimal processing that will see this material helping to rejuvenate our soils. Nonetheless, we will continue to educate people on home composting, worm farms and keeping chickens where household options are best.
In 2018, we held our first sustainable fashion week in the Ballarat and surrounding areas. In 2019 we want to take those opportunities further afield with workshops and practical activities. We have already produced a regional op shop guide – Op Shop Adventures.
Finally, 2018 saw the War on Waste continue to highlight the challenges we face with dealing with the consequences of our consumption – whether it is packaging, short life products or simply having too much stuff. These challenges will continue in 2019. Happy New Year and may 2019 be the year we reduce our waste.
