Sunday 23 November 2014

Waste Not Want Not

Steve Dewar recently ventured oversees and couldn’t help but notice how waste is being treated, he provided the following summary.

Most South American countries are way ahead of Australia when it comes to waste and recycling. You can return bottles to point-of-sale for refunds, they are phasing out plastic bags and waste containers are common alongside containers for recycling and organic waste, even in the poorest country, Bolivia. 

Here is the plastic bag phase-out for Argentina: Limit 3 bags till March 2015; 2 bags till June; 1 bag till August and Sept 1 2015 no more bags will be given out!
In a publicity pamphlet for Argentina-they explained how long it takes things to degrade in the environment: Paper-6 months; cigarette butts-1 to 2 years; chewing gum-5 years; wine cartons-5 years; tin cans-10 years; plastic bags-10 to 20 years; leather-25 to 40 years; plastic bottles-100 years; aluminium cans-60 to 100 years; plastic foam-never; glass-never; batteries-highly contaminating over years. 

Something we can all do is sort our waste and remember to take our reusable bags shopping…leave some in the boot and you’ll never be without one.

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