Page 3392 - Week 09 - Wednesday, 22 August 2018
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
Reducing waste, and in particular reducing organic waste to landfill, is also important for reducing our greenhouse gas emissions to meet our net zero emissions by 2045 target. Sending organic material to landfill is a waste of valuable material that could be composted and used to nourish topsoil. By increasing diversion of organic material from landfill, we can reduce emissions and improve our local soils.
The ACT government’s highly successful Actsmart business recycling program continues to support ACT businesses by providing free advice, education and signage to assist with reducing waste and increasing recycling. There are currently 1,004 businesses participating in the program. With dedicated support from the Actsmart team, accredited businesses have all achieved reductions in waste to landfill, some by over 90 per cent. These programs encourage business clients and the public to look at ways of reducing waste generation and recycling of soft plastics.
Similarly, the Actsmart schools program actively encourages waste-free lunches to reduce single-use packaging in lunch boxes, encouraging students to avoid using cling wrap and instead opting for reusable containers and beeswax wraps. Some schools have also commenced sorting and collecting soft plastics and taking these to collection points at supermarkets.
I have to say that the way many of our schools across the territory have embraced this program and made an extraordinary impact in rolling out what they have learned from it is really inspiring. I have been to a number of schools and seen the active rollout of this program. Students certainly embrace it. They often are the ones who are most energetic about it. It is not that they have to be told to do it. Once they are given the knowledge, they really get stuck into it and are very creative.
It gives me great hope that over the coming decades, as these students come through the decision-making structures, whether it be in government, in private companies, in the service sector, they will really bring about a significant change. That does not mean we should leave it to them. We must get stuck into it now. But I have great optimism about the future in that regard.
As Ms Orr mentioned, the ACT government launched the straws suck campaign a couple of months ago to encourage businesses and the community to rethink their need for single-use plastic straws. The straws suck campaign delivered by Actsmart involves taking a pledge to reduce the number of single-use straws being used. There are currently 24 businesses signed up to the campaign. Community members can sign up to this pledge as part of the Actsmart online carbon challenge.
In the context of that campaign, it is worth reflecting on a few of the facts about single-use straws. An estimated 10 million plastic straws are used in Australia every single day. When some people first read that, they think it is a typo. They think it must mean every year. But in fact it is every single day. It is an extraordinary figure. That straws take up to 200 years to degrade in the environment and will never actually biodegrade underlines the impact of that process. Plastic straws are in the top 10 most littered items. Plastic straws used today will outlive your children’s children’s children. It gives you a sense, putting it in those terms, of how long-lived these
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video