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Emirates introduces sustainable blankets made from 100% recycled plastic bottles

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Emirates introduces sustainable blankets made from 100% recycled plastic bottles

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Emirates has introduced new sustainable blankets made from 100% recycled plastic bottles.

The soft and warm blankets are made using ecoTHREAD patented technology and is now available in Economy Class on all long-haul Emirates flights.
READ MORE: Emirates slams United for having passenger dragged off a plane (UAL)
Each Emirates ecoTHREAD blanket is made from 28 recycled plastic bottles. With the latest innovation, the bottles are recycled into plastic chips before being turned into yarn, creating a polar fleece material. The fine thread is then woven into soft blankets.

The environmentally-friendly blankets were designed in partnership with Buzz, the world's leading in flight product specialists, and are part of Emirates' continued commitment to product innovation and sustainability.

Emirates already runs a green programme on board recycling aluminum cans, plastic and glass bottles, and clean paper products such as newspapers, magazines and cardboard cartons where possible.

By the end of 2019, Emirates ecoTHREAD blankets would have rescued 88 million plastic bottles from landfills- equivalent to the weight of 44 A380 aircraft.
READ MORE: ACCA holds forum on Integrated Reporting and climate change
This initiative makes it the largest sustainable blanket programme on board in the airline industry. In addition, the manufacturing process of using recycled polyethylene terephthalate (PET) reduces energy emissions by 70%.

ecoTHREAD is certified with the Intertek Green Leaf Mark by third party testing and certification body Intertek, independently verified to use 100% recycled materials.

The Emirates ecoTHREAD blanket for Economy Class completes the recent comforter overhaul across all three classes. The airline introduced a plush, faux sheep-skin blanket in First Class and soft duvets in Business Class.

In the last year, Emirates has added several new products for customers travelling in Economy including the world's first interactive amenity kits.

The amenity kits - filled with necessities such as an eye mask, earplugs, toothbrush and toothpaste, and socks - uses augmented reality technology to unlock entertainment on customers' mobile devices using the Blippar app.

The content was refreshed last month to feature a new interactive game called The Emirates Destination Dash to keep customers' busy on long-haul flights or on the ground.

Emirates Economy Class cabins are also equipped with the largest in-seat screens in the world in Economy at 13.3 inches and more than 2,500 channels of on-demand entertainment on the award-winning inflight entertainment system, ice Digital Widescreen.

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Recycling: Emirates introduces sustainable blankets made from 100% recycled plastic bottles

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The soft and warm blankets are made using ecoTHREAD patented technology and is now available in Economy Class on all long-haul Emirates flights. READ MORE: Emirates slams United for having passenger dragged off a plane (UAL) Each Emirates ecoTHREAD blanket is made from 28 recycled plastic bottles.

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Made in Brunel: Student turns plastic bags into skateboards

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Made in Brunel: Student turns plastic bags into skateboards

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A compact press that turns plastic shopping bags into skateboards has been designed by a student at Brunel University London in a bid to tackle community litter and deforestation - and give kids a cheap new hobby.
Over 300 million tons of plastic is produced globally each year, and while a large percentage of it can be recycled, much is simply trashed. Around 90% finds its way in to landfills, oceans, animal stomachs and our water supply.

BA Industrial Design and Technology student Jason Knight, 22, believes that recycling could become a fun, more attractive, activity if the waste can be turned into something constructive for young people with a tangible personal reward as well as an environmental impact.

Skateboard decks are traditionally made from plywood, most often taken from Canadian maple trees, and are one of the biggest causes of maple deforestation. Pro-skateboarders can go through dozens of decks a year, and young fans can find the cost of replacing their boards prohibitive.

Jason hopes that independent skate shops and other local businesses could ultimately set up their own recycling centres, allowing people to use the machine with their own collected waste plastic. The waste plastic would gain a new purpose, and the personal cost of buying a new deck (typically around £40-£60) would be reduced.

He began experimenting with recycling plastics two years ago, shredding and then melting down bags made from high-density polythene. Once heated to 130 degrees, the plastic becomes soft and malleable like clay and reduces in size as particles melt together. Sustained pressure moulds it into a solid object and, with air pockets removed, creates an incredibly strong material with a multi-coloured surface finish resembling marble.

During a placement year as part of his course, Jason worked at Danish FabLab, FabLab RUC, developing a plastic shredding machine after realising the most time consuming part of the process was breaking down plastic bags by hand. He exhibited the shredder at a number of music and art festivals in 2016 and ran plastic recycling workshops, helping festival-goers melt and mould bags into hard plastic bottle openers.

For his final year university project - set to be exhibited from 15-18 June as part of the annual Made in Brunel showcase - he designed an easy-to-use, compact, and relatively inexpensive press and a range of prototype boards.

Experienced skateboarders have described the decks as more flexible than a wooden board but, when you get the hang of it, "you can ollie (jump) higher than with a wooden board, opening up new possibilities for tricks". Aesthetically, the boards "look incredible". "The fact that each board is unique is so cool, riders will be able to customise their decks with whatever colours they like," one user added.

The final press is a self-contained heating and pressing machine, which includes safety lights to stop users burning themselves and a heating implement activated with a simple twist thermostat.

Built from steel, the press weighs 200kg in total, stands around 6ft x 6ft, holds an aluminium mould, and is mounted on wheels. Before pressing a deck the inner faces of the mould are coated with a release agent, acting as a lubricant so the molten plastic spreads with as little effort as possible.

It currently takes around two hours to heat the plastic required for one skateboard, but Jason plans to continue developing his design to speed things up.

"It's been proven that there's a positive correlation between people interested in skateboarding and people interested in sustainability. Yet there's also this dated stigma going back to the origins of skateboarding subculture that considers skateboarders are a public nuisance," Jason explains.

"I hope that this design, which could allow people to contribute to a local community by collecting waste while creating something really cool, might go some way in helping challenge that stigma."
Made in Brunel is a student led collaborative platform focused on showcasing good design from Brunel University London. The Made in Brunel exhibition runs from 15 - 18 June 2017 (11am-6pm) at the Bargehouse, Oxo Tower Wharf, London. Free tickets can be booked at madeinbrunel.com Follow @madeinbrunel for more information and updates
Reported by:

Sarah Cox, Media Relations
sarah.cox@brunel.ac.uk

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Made in Brunel: Student turns plastic bags into skateboards

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A compact press that turns plastic shopping bags into skateboards has been designed by a student at Brunel University London in a bid to tackle community litter and deforestation - and give kids a cheap new hobby. Over 300 million tons of plastic is produced globally each year, and while a large percentage of it can be recycled, much is simply trashed.

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War on Waste: Railway sleepers made from recycled plastic could replace timber on heritage tracks

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War on Waste: Railway sleepers made from recycled plastic could replace timber on heritage tracks

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Updated May 15, 2017 12:27:14

There is hope recycled plastic railway sleepers made in north-west Victoria could be the next weapon in the war on waste.

More than 750 tonnes of polystyrene and agricultural plastic waste, including cotton bale wrap and vineyard covers, is being turned into plastic railway sleepers and other products.

Currently many heritage railways rely on second hand timber sleepers, but now testing is underway to see if plastic could be a viable alternative.

Volunteer project manager Russell Trevaskis is working with two manufacturers on the trial.

He said the demand for an alternative sleeper material is being driven by tourist and heritage railway groups who are using second hand timber sleepers to keep their tracks going.

Mr Trevaskis said the groups can't keep up with the maintenance of timber sleepers which only have a lifespan of five to 15 years.

"If we can put a sleeper in there with a 50-year life, their workload would just stop over the next five years," he said.

The testing process

Integrated Recycling is one of the companies involved in the recycled plastic sleeper project.

General manager Stephen Webster said their facility was having the sleepers tested by Monash University's Institute of Railway Technology to prove they will support trains.

Mr Webster said he expected to have the testing finished by the end of June and is then planning to market the sleepers.

He said tourist and heritage railways, along with the sugar cane railways in northern Queensland, are viable destinations for the sleepers.

"We have installed a number of sleepers with four different tourist and heritage railways, including Puffing Billy, Walhalla and Castlemaine," he said.

"They've been installed now for two years and so far everything has been on specification, which is great.

"We are also working with Queensland Rail on developing an alternate sleeper for their mainline use and that's a two-year project we're involved with there with them."

How are recycled plastic sleepers made?

Mr Webster said Integrated Recycling collects vine covers and other polyethylene-based plastics and combines them with recycled polystyrene, wood fibre and some other secret ingredients to make their composite plastic products.

He estimated the facility was able to recycle 750 tonnes of polystyrene and plastic each year.

Mr Webster said most of this material was sourced from the Mildura region with polystyrene collected and compacted from the Adelaide produce markets.

Other materials to be processed include the wrap placed around cotton bales and pipe used in the mining industry.

"Polystyrene, if it goes to landfill is a challenge for the landfill because it takes volume and not weight, so it fills a landfill particularly quickly, which is a huge cost to the community," he said.

"Vine covers and other plastics may well be disposed of into landfill.

"Or if they don't choose to do that there are other ways of disposing them like burning or burying them, which isn't great for the environment."

The Mildura factory has been operating since 2010 and initially started out making outdoor furniture and bollards.

Mr Webster said it was expanding its product range and promoting the environmentally friendly aspects of the business.

"I think initially the green and sustainable element is what attracts people, but people now realise its durability is beneficial because there's no maintenance with this product once it's installed," he said.

"It doesn't have to be repainted, re-oiled, re-sanded anything like that with timber and it will last between two and three times longer than timber.

"Generally it is a much lower cost over that period of time; that is what appeals to councils and parks authorities."

Cost of sleepers a challenge

Mr Trevaskis said recycled plastic sleepers were roughly double the cost of timber sleepers.

He said funding the move to these sustainable sleepers could be a challenge for the tourist and heritage railway groups.

"If they can get a grant to put these things in that will bring the cost down to the price of a new timber sleeper, so that's what makes it viable," he said.

"One tonne of recycled plastic will make 25 sleepers.

"So you can imagine the sustainability effect on the environment."

Topics: recycling-and-waste-management, plastics-and-rubber, timber, rail-transport, regional-development, regional, community-development, mildura-3500

First posted May 15, 2017 10:52:59

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Recycled railway plastic sleepers replace timber on heritage tracks

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Updated May 15, 2017 12:27:14 There is hope recycled plastic railway sleepers made in north-west Victoria could be the next weapon in the war on waste. More than 750 tonnes of polystyrene and agricultural plastic waste, including cotton bale wrap and vineyard covers, is being turned into plastic railway sleepers and other products.

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Vinyl flooring company embraces circular economy

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Vinyl flooring company embraces circular economy

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Tandy Coleman is on a mission - to make sure recycling becomes the only way vinyl flooring is disposed of.
As the CEO of vinyl flooring company Polyflor, Coleman was concerned about the amount of offcuts her company was throwing away, and with the aim to embrace a circular economy, she decided to take a leap and start something new.

Her company started a pilot recycling project in Johannesburg, which is South Africa's first vinyl flooring take back scheme. She says this project was aimed at helping the South African Vinyl Association (SAVA) achieve its target of recycling 15,000 tonnes of vinyl waste a year.

Launching the recycling programme

"I thought about how on earth we were going to recycle vinyl flooring," Coleman told delegates at the Vinyl SA Conference in Johannesburg on Wednesday. "And I thought - if you want to do something, don't reinvent the wheel - find the experts and ask them for advice."

Coleman approached Recoflor in the United Kingdom (UK) after their vinyl flooring recycling initiative took off so well, it earned them a Green Apple Gold Award for Environmental Practice.

Considering Recoflor only began operations in 2010, its initiative grew exponentially with the company having successfully opened 63 drop off sites throughout the UK to date.

In 2012 it had collected 450 tonnes of offcuts, and by 2016, they were collecting up to 3,208 tonnes of material a year. This is equivalent to 150 football fields and saved 2,566 tonnes of carbon dioxide waste from being emitted into the atmosphere.

And so Coleman thought: "If they (Recoflor) can get it right on their little island, surely we can get it right."

She spearheaded the recycling project which has seen more than four tonnes of vinyl flooring offcuts already recycled.

Currently Polyflor is assisted with collecting offcuts from four contractor companies and all the waste is recycled by Potch Plastic.

"This must become a total industry initiative," Coleman says. "But we need the commitment of more contractors and recyclers."

She said there is a need to educate architects and building contractors in order to make recycling compulsory.

She added that the aim of the project will be to increase the company's recycling rate by 100% % by the end of 2017.

"Everyone needs to take account," she says, "and if everyone takes a little bit of responsibility in their industry to do recycling, we will all make a difference."

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Vinyl flooring company embraces circular economy

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Tandy Coleman is on a mission - to make sure recycling becomes the only way vinyl flooring is disposed of. As the CEO of vinyl flooring company Polyflor, Coleman was concerned about the amount of offcuts her company was throwing away, and with the aim to embrace a circular economy, she decided to take a leap and start something new.

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NATIVE Australian bees don't cope well with heat.

Their natural homes might be out in the bush under the scorching Aussie sun but should temperatures nudge 40 degrees, then it can mean the apocalypse for a healthy colony of pollinators.

Ann and Jeff Ross discovered just how heat sensitive native bees are when they lost a series of hives during consecutive heatwaves at their Sunshine Coast home several years ago.

Curiously though, the bees contained in their homemade plastic hives survived.

It was enough to make the couple re-think what a beehive should look like and how it should provide an environment conducive to good colony growth.

This all led to the development of the B Box, an upright, hexagonal-shaped hive made from high density polyethylene (HDPE) plastic.

HDPE is washable, impervious to diseases, light weight, tough, never needs painting, chemical resistant and does not absorb water - all things that regular hoop pine boxes lack.

In keeping with the sustainable theme, HDPE is a recycled product made from things like milk bottles.

Importantly, the materials and design provide an insulation quality to the inner hive, keeping it cool.

Now, after several awards and a stream of media attention, the world is starting to take notice of the new-look honey home.

Australian native bees are stingless and hardworking pollinators, an untapped commodity for use in commercial agriculture systems.

The realisation of this, as well as the need to preserve the species, has pushed the Rosses to invest both money and time in creating a solution to house their tiny native friends.

At the centre of the issue is the fact native bees can't cool their hives as European bees can through water retention and fanning the unit.

It's the core innovation that keeps the Rosses interested.

"Every time we get side-tracked on developing the honey or the budding system, we just keep coming back to the insulation system," Mrs Ross said.

The current model is temperature testing better than traditional honeybee hives, however the Rosses want to see an improvement in this area.

IN THE BEE-GINNING
The interest in bees all began when a swarm made its home in the wall of their mechanical workshop at Beerburrum.

"We didn't want to poison them so we removed the wall internally," Mrs Ross said.

They shifted that swarm into a regular beehive in their backyard and expanded to eventually create the Hive Haven brand, selling honey and hives.

They now have about 35-45 honey-producing hives, which, on a commercial scale, isn't a major operation but it's the innovation work which holds their interest.

Having established the ins and outs of regular apiaries, their interest then turned to Australian native bees.

The timing of the new beehive design endeavour couldn't have been better with Mrs Ross undertaking a business degree at the University of the Sunshine Coast.

This provided a new network of contacts regarding design and project development, which she says has been invaluable.

The first few boxes they developed were actually "printed" from a 3D printer.

Plastic engineering firm, Dotmar, assisted with prototype creation, taking it from prototype four to prototype seven. The B Box is a work in progress, however.

It might look architecturally striking in the right setting but a hexagonal beehive on a metal stand (courtesy of Hutchinsons Builders) is not practical for an orchard or paddock.

The pair have started working on a more robust, farm-friendly version of the hive to help with the pollination of crops such as macadamias.
COMMUNITY INTEREST
Mrs Ross says native bees are a catalyst for change in the way people interact with the natural environment.

A large, tinted window gives a great view to the B Box situated in the Butterfly Garden at the USC's Innovation Centre, ideal for looking at curious passersby who stop to see what the white box is all about.

Mrs Ross says Hive Haven has benefited enormously from membership at the innovation centre.

"We've received some great mentoring and it's great to be able to share the start-up journey with other early growth businesses.

"I've done a fair bit of observation. People do feel better when they are watching them," she said.

There are currently hives in various test locations in Queensland, including Maleny Dairies, the Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, Australia Zoo Wildlife Hospital, Logan City Council Art Gallery and one area that has become a vital source of research and development, Glasshouse Views Retirement Village.

When faced with a design problem, Mrs Ross has become accustomed to contacting the retirement village where the combined brains of eager "tinkerers" toil away on a solution.

"I'd say to village manager, Christine Minetti, can you ask the boys about it and they'd go off on a mission to Bunnings or something.

"A native bee box in people's backyards will be, hopefully, one day mainstream," she said.

"People are saying I've got the veggie garden, I've got the worm farm but I'd really like a hive of native bees."
BENEFITS BEYOND
Mrs Ross said to take the B Box further will require a new level of manufacturing which is costly.

"Looking at it logically, it wouldn't be viable to do, but when you look at it way beyond the benefits of pollination; the community connection, and the need to save an Australian species for the future, the money is not the focus," she said.

"We do want to get the product out there. We don't want it tied up in research for years and years.

"We do need someone to take it to the next level."

Mr Ross has also developed a small hive beetle trap for his Langstroth (1852) honey bee hives with ongoing testing preventing further details from being released just yet.

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NATIVE Australian bees don't cope well with heat. Their natural homes might be out in the bush under the scorching Aussie sun but should temperatures nudge 40 degrees, then it can mean the apocalypse for a healthy colony of pollinators.

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Would You Buy a Plastic Suit From Stella McCartney?

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Would You Buy a Plastic Suit From Stella McCartney?

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Since 2015, Parley has worked with the government of the Maldives, as well as the nation's resorts, fisheries, schools and fishing vessels to collect 80 to 120 tons of plastic from the oceans per month. After gathering the plastic, Parley cleans and sorts it, then condenses it into smaller pieces that are shipped to recycling plants, where they are turned into filament and then into yarn or fabric. Parley is collaborating with the United Nations to extend its programs to 38 small island developing states.

As part of the collaboration with Stella McCartney, whose length has not been determined, the label will use the ocean plastic in lieu of woven or recycled polyester in products like shoes, bags and outerwear. Ms. McCartney has already worked with Parley on a sneaker design for Adidas, a company that Parley has teamed up with on several projects.

She would not say how much of each product will be made from the material, in part because the process of using it in items beyond sneakers began only recently. "You're not dealing with a machine," Ms. McCartney said. "You can't just say, 'Hey, this is a great idea, let's roll it out with X million pieces.'"

Will consumers be convinced that garments made in part from recycled materials are worth hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars?

"When I was younger, leather equaled luxury, and people could not get their head around the fact that I was not using leather," said Ms. McCartney, who has made animal rights a focus for her vegan brand since its founding in 2001. "Leather is cheaper than some of the nonleather alternatives, it's less interesting, it's less modern. Every element of it, to me, is not particularly luxurious or fashionable."

She continued, "Is a recycled plastic ever going to be something people think is a luxury? If they don't notice it and if they feel that living on this planet longer is a luxury, then yes, to me that's my idea of luxury."

Her company has teamed up with sustainability-focused organizations over the years, including the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Wildlife Friendly Enterprise Network, and has used fabrics that have a low impact on the environment, like cashmere that is made from post-factory waste and viscose that does not originate in endangered forests.

She acknowledged that working with alternative materials can mean higher production costs, but said that her company tries not to pass on those expenses to the consumer.

"We are always getting hit with extra costs, and that's something we absorb happily," she said. "Even with bringing nonleather goods into the U.S., we get hit with an extra tax. It's something we just swallow. I can't deliver a product that's more expensive and that prices me out of the marketplace."

Ms. McCartney said to expect to see Parley material in pieces that will go on sale in July, though you probably won't be able to recognize them without reading the tag. "We're in a framework where we can deliver something to people," she said. "It's not one piece that's overpriced or 50 pieces that look like they have been woven in your living room."

The ultimate hope, for both Parley and Ms. McCartney, is that a new material will be invented to replace plastic, and for there to be no plastic discarded into the oceans for them to reclaim. In the meantime, Mr. Gutsch said he wants Ms. McCartney's participation to serve as an example for the fashion industry. "We know if Stella starts something, she goes all the way," he said.

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Would You Buy a Plastic Suit From Stella McCartney?

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Since 2015, Parley has worked with the government of the Maldives, as well as the nation's resorts, fisheries, schools and fishing vessels to collect 80 to 120 tons of plastic from the oceans per month.

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Trash or treasure: The designer objects made of rubbish

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Trash or treasure: The designer objects made of rubbish

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The phrase "green is the new black" is thrown around with great enthusiasm but, like any trend, will this 21st-century impulse towards green living soon start to look and sound dreary and outdated? There is an army of eco-savvy and inventive product designers out there who think not. From old baths rescued from the salvage yard and made into surprisingly comfortable armchairs to hand grenades gilded in gold or silver and used as oil lamps, a new generation of creatives is emerging who take the trouble to consider the past as well as the future life of their materials. By reusing existing resources, they hope to make a dent in the world's expanding waste mountain instead of adding to it.

Many of these ideas are showcased in the design book Cool Hunting Green, a photographic guide to this type of sustainable innovation. As the name suggests, the book steers well clear of any of the uglier trappings of an eco-lifestyle, such as energy-efficient light bulbs and home composters, in a bid to prove that aesthetics needn't be compromised in ecologically-sound design.

A large number of the designs featured are made from existing products, such as empty tin cans, pieces of old computers and even party poppers - pieces of tat and trash to which we would normally attach little or no value. Once they have been turned into unique accessories or household objects with a worthy philosophy behind them, however, their beauty becomes evident very quickly, even to people not known for their eco-credentials, such as the design expert Stephen Bayley, who finds some of the offerings "ingenious and charming" and is impressed by their intelligence.

High praise indeed from a man who has written at great length about his conviction that the great age of design has passed, because there is nothing we need which has not already been designed. "My heart sinks when I seesomebody else producing yet another design for a chair," he admits. "For so long in the history of design, designers were concerned about novelty and the next new thing. I don't think either culturally, economically or environmentally we're now so concerned with novelty in itself."

Designers are traditionally fiercely protective of their creations precisely because they believe them to be novel in some way, but one of those featured in Cool Hunting Green, RePlayGround, is happy to give away its ideas, explaining on its website how you can create DIY versions of the designs using rubbish lying around your own home.

Dave Evans, who collated the book following the success of his original Cool Hunting publication, is certain each design holds its own against anything made from more traditional materials. "One of the criteria for putting them in the book was that they had to be strong enough not to have to be in the green category, but just be good designs," he explains.

He decided to start work on the book when he noticed that a lot of the designs being pushed his way were products made from recycled materials. "A lot of the designers I'm in touch with are moving that way in terms of where they source their materials, and thinking more about the impact and the consequences of what they are doing," he says.

Green design seems to be making its way from the periphery towards the mainstream, and becoming something which is expected rather than novel or quirky. One day, hopes Evans, a product's green credentials will be in-built rather than a selling point.

Evans is convinced that there is plenty of mileage in this thoughtful use of existing objects over new, shiny and environmentally costly ones. So much so that he is already working on several new green publications, one covering fashion and accessories and another on green living. He accepts that there might be a glut of eco-books around at the moment, but he is not impressed by any of them, finding them worthy and didactic rather than inspirational.

His favourite design from the book is Stuart Haygarth's Millennium Chandelier, fashioned from 1,000 used party poppers collected from the streets and dance floors of London. "The way they are so precisely hung to create something that is extraordinary but made of very cheap plastic things really struck me," he says.

This is exactly the reaction Bayley expects from a good piece of design. "If something makes you smile and makes you feel good, then it is probably a very good piece of design," he says. "An awful lot of this stuff makes me smile."

'Cool Hunting Green' by Dave Evans, £12.99, www.southbankpublishing.com. To order this book for £11.69 (free p&p), call Independent Books Direct on 0870 079 8897 or visit www.independentbooksdirect.co.uk

Bath and beyond

Israeli design duo Reddish say they like to "make objects feel better about themselves", and they have done a fine job with this tired old bath by transforming it into a groovy retro armchair with a touch of the Marcel Duchamp about it.

www.reddishstudio.com

War bowl

Dominic Wilcox was searching for a new material to design with when he realised he could make one by melting down toy soldiers from the Battle of Waterloo. The bowl's conflicting message works as both a reminder of the playful aspect of childhood and the horrors of war.

www.thorstenvanelten.com

Car sandal

Cars are the scourge of the green movement but the shoe designers at Terra Plana, who create wearable eco-friendly shoes, have come up with this simple design made from old bits of seatbelt and car tyres.

www.terraplana.com

Function clock

RePlayGround founder Tiffany Threadgold makes a living out of devising clever new uses for old items and scrap. The function keys from a computer keyboard are dotted around an old stove burner to make this clock.

www.replayground.com

Man-orah

The Hanukkah menorah is brought down to earth with this masculine offering made from galvanised steel plumbing pipes. There is also a Femenorah, made from PVC pipes studded with Swarovski crystals.

www.notschlock.com

Cutting up knives

Austrian Paul Kogelnig and Swiss Gabriel Heusser have crafted these bottle-openers out of old cutlery. According to them, "The future of mass production is mass customisation."

www.pervisioni.it

Millennium chandelier

Spare a thought for Stuart Haygarth, who was scrabbling around on the floor looking for empty party popper shells while you were seeing in the Millennium. For his pains, though, he came away with this stunning multicoloured chandelier, hung with 1,000 exploded party poppers.

www.stuarthaygarth.com

6 pack

Reassembling an empty Heineken six pack as a vase and filling the cans with white tulips strips it of all its beery blokishness. French designers Atypyk just supply the plastic tray to hook the cans together, so you could fashion your own teetotal vase if desired.

www.atypyk.com

Hand-grenade lamp

Spotting a hand grenade in someone's living room should set alarm bells ringing, but check they aren't the latest cool green design before running for the hills. Piet Houtenbos has cleverly re-commissioned these US army surplus grenades into satisfyingly chunky oil lamps.

www.piethoutenbos.com

EcoYoung

Swiss designers Sergio Streun and Vincent Schertenleib design simple and functional objects for the home. This waste paper basket is handcrafted from exactly the product it is designed to collect - waste paper - and therefore each one is unique.

www.366cm.com

Beer and soda can rings

A few years ago American jewellery designer Dana Roth was shocked to discover how many beer cans littered the space around her workbench. Instead of searching out a 12-step programme, she set to work making pop-culture rings, bangles and cuffs out of the empties.

www.elsewares.com

Happy blackout

An incredibly simple design which illuminates some of the issues around the finite supply of fossil fuels while looking great too. Making a feature out of energy consumption is a theme running through the products by German lighting company Stiletto.

www.stiletto.de

Knit wit chunky bangle

Australian jewellery designer Liana Kabel blames her obsession with plastic on the fact that her mother was a Tupperware saleswoman, and says of her inspiration, "If it looks like a lolly, I like it". This bright red bangle, fashioned from an old, retro-style knitting needle, is no exception.

www.lianakabel.com

Silvana table

Beams of light reflect off the inside of the stainless steel base of this old washing machine drum on to the glass tabletop. Reestore's designers make a point of choosing contemporary finishes and fabrics over traditional eco-materials.

www.reestore.com

Mskyo

These trolley sound systems are a German design created in loving homage to the ghetto blaster, but you'll find it much easier to drag this to a party than an outsized Eighties sound system, and it has been updated for the MP3 generation.

www.claassen-partner.de

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Trash or treasure: The designer objects made of rubbish

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The phrase "green is the new black" is thrown around with great enthusiasm but, like any trend, will this 21st-century impulse towards green living soon start to look and sound dreary and outdated? There is an army of eco-savvy and inventive product designers out there who think not.

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Egyptian architect turns rubbish into designer furniture

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Egyptian architect turns rubbish into designer furniture

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Egyptian architect turns rubbish into designer furniture

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As the saying goes: one man's trash is another man's treasure. Well, one Egyptian architect is making this reality by collecting rubbish and scraps, and turning them into furniture. Let's take a look.

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Envision Plastics’ EcoPrime can be used to package fatty foods and spirits

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Envision Plastics’ EcoPrime can be used to package fatty foods and spirits

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Envision Plastics' EcoPrime can be used to package fatty foods and spirits

Envision Plastics, headquartered in Reidsville, North Carolina, has announced that the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) has issued a letter of no objection regarding the suitability of Envision's flagship product, EcoPrime, when used at levels of up to 100 percent in HDPE (high-density polyethylene) packaging for fatty foods and spirits under FDA's Conditions of Use A through H. With this recent FDA letter, EcoPrime is the only postconsumer recycled HDPE resin to which the FDA has granted a favorable review for use in packaging all food types up to retort temperature conditions, the company claims.

EcoPrime is one of the only recycled and recyclable HDPE resins specifically manufactured for direct food contact at levels up to 100 percent, Envision Plastics says, adding that EcoPrime can be integrated into existing manufacturing processes for the packaging of food and beverages, as well as for beauty, cosmetic and personal care products.

Tamsin Ettefagh, vice president of sales and procurement for Envision Plastics, says, "I am thrilled at the opportunities the FDA's letter of no objection provides, extending the use of this innovative product into new markets. Made from U.S.-sourced recycled food packaging, integrating EcoPrime not only provides your end consumers the products they love but within packaging they can feel good about."

Envision Plastics was established in 2001 and has produced more than 750 million pounds of recycled resin. In June 2014, Envision was acquired by Atlanta-based Consolidated Container Co. (CCC) and continues to operate as a distinct business within the CCC family. Envision products include EcoPrime, PRISMA, OceanBound Plastic and Deodorized Resin.

CCC is a leading developer and manufacturer of rigid plastic packaging solutions in North America. CCC specializes in customized mid- and short-run packaging solutions, serving a diverse customer base in the dairy, household chemicals, food/nutraceuticals, industrial/specialty chemicals, water and beverage/juice markets. With 57 rigid plastic packaging manufacturing facilities, two recycled resins manufacturing facilities and 2,300 employees, CCC has an integrated, nationwide network.

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Envision Plastics' EcoPrime can be used to package fatty foods and spirits - Recycling Today

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Envision Plastics, headquartered in Reidsville, North Carolina, has announced that the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) has issued a letter of no objection regarding the suitability of Envision's flagship product, EcoPrime, when used at levels of up to 100 percent in HDPE (high-density polyethylene) packaging for fatty foods and spirits under FDA's Conditions of Use A through H.

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Australian Fashion Week: Designers must focus more on sustainability, eco-fashionistas say

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Australian Fashion Week: Designers must focus more on sustainability, eco-fashionistas say

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Posted May 17, 2017 10:53:44

The Australian fashion industry still has "a long way to go" in the production of environmentally friendly textiles according to eco-fashionistas, who want brands to do more to incorporate sustainable practices.

On average, for every metre of fabric used when making shoes or clothing, 20 per cent is discarded as waste.

Traditional dyes used to stain fabrics have damaging effects on the environment, while the widespread use of blended fabrics such as cotton and elastane make clothes impossible to recycle and be repurposed.

Kelly Elkin from not-for-profit organisation Clean Cut Fashion said an upcoming panel discussion about future industry practices was the only event at this week's Australian Fashion Week in Sydney that was focused on sustainable principles.

"More needs to be done, we're still a long way to go," Ms Elkin said.

"Five years ago, no-one would think that sustainability would be anywhere on the agenda at Fashion Week in Australia.

"And now we're not only seeing panels and fashion leaders openly discussing it, we're seeing the main headlining acts embracing sustainability as part of their core ethos.

"It would be great to see the vast number of brands showing having a really good go at sustainability and ethics, but it's coming."

KitX leading sustainable fashion

Ms Elkin said there were only "a handful" of designers at the event this year that promoted sustainable business models.

One of those spearheading change in the industry is KitX which launched in 2015 by former Willow designer Kit Willow.

"Fashion is the second largest polluter in the world after the oil industry, with 70 per cent of fashion's impact on the planet made at the material production and agricultural phase," Ms Willow said.

"Because of this KitX focuses on environmentally sustainable and ethically sourced materials.

"We include zips made from recycled plastic bottles, buttons created from reclaimed horn, organic cotton, sustainable silk and reclaimed marine litter upcycled into lycra in our designs."

Growth of small brands

Ms Elkin said big international brands such as Nike, Adidas and Levi's have so far been the main advocates for sustainable practices, with the latter experimenting with ways to repurpose jeans into new denim and operating under the mantra "water less, waste less".

She said younger and smaller Australian brands were also starting to adopt more sustainable practices and had started seeing the value in promoting that ethos to consumers.

She cited processes such as minimising offcuts, using eco-friendly dyes and inks, and being "less trend driven, more style focused" when considering the longevity of a garment.

Materials like organic cotton, bamboo, hemp, linen and recycled polyester were starting to be used in some Australian brands.

Lucy Hinckfuss, founder of brand Ten Pieces, said minimising fabric wastage was "difficult" during production due to certain pattern layouts, although they were starting use more eco-friendly material.

Their collection showing at Fashion Week on Thursday was created using biodegradable Australian merino wool and cashmere.

"We're starting to steer away from plastic coverings, we use recycled paper for our tags, and we try and cut down on wrapping," she said.

"Sustainable fashion has been around for a long time but it's only just coming into commercial awareness.

"Everyone in Australian fashion should make it an important part of how the industry runs."

Ms Elkin said the concept of sustainable fashion had to extend to business values and principles, not just about clothing production.

"I wish I could say there was a huge amount of initiatives here.

"We, alongside Ethical Clothing Australia, are trying to work with Australian brands, working on ethical local production and creating recycled textile waste initiatives, but it's a really slow process.

"There's a lot of talk about recycling denim ... which is the most common fabric we use, so hopefully something will come out of that soon."

Topics: arts-and-entertainment, fashion, environmental-impact, sustainable-living, human-interest, recycling-and-waste-management, environment, sydney-2000

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Posted May 17, 2017 10:53:44 The Australian fashion industry still has "a long way to go" in the production of environmentally friendly textiles according to eco-fashionistas, who want brands to do more to incorporate sustainable practices. On average, for every metre of fabric used when making shoes or clothing, 20 per cent is discarded as waste.

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Turning unwanted building waste into road base

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Turning unwanted building waste into road base

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More than three million tonnes of building and demolition waste is produced in Western Australia every year, and about two million tonnes of it gets recycled.

In the Perth suburb of Bayswater, building waste is taken there in skips from around the city.

The material is then sorted for reuse at Instant Waste Management, the largest recycling plant of its kind in the state.

"Because of the double-brick construction that we use in Western Australia, there is a large proportion of concrete and heavy aggregates in what we process," Jake Hickey, the state resource development manager, told ABC Radio Perth.

But despite its appearance, the waste thrown into skips from demolitions and new builds is quite easy to recycle.

"We use screen decks to sort rubble by size and weight, giant magnets to remove the metal, flotation tanks to remove timbers, and giant air knives to remove paper and cardboard," Mr Hickey said.

"The metal is sent back to China and reprocessed back into reinforcement for concrete structures.

"The concrete and the bricks is crushed down into road base that we can use for local government roads."

The demand from builders and developers to send their scraps to the plant for reuse is actually greater than what they can process.

"There is limited infrastructure in Western Australia," Mr Hickey said.

"Some local governments don't want recycling facilities in their local area, others are very happy to have them."

It's cheaper to recycle than send stuff to landfill

And the reason demand is so high is thanks to the State Government's landfill levy which was introduced in 2007.

It costs $50 per tonne to send building waste to landfill, and by July 2018 it will cost $70 a tonne.

"Before the introduction of the landfill levy ... it was cheaper to [send it to] landfill," Mr Hickey said.

"Now it's cheaper to recycle."

Calls to mandate recycled road base

So the next time you're driving on a suburban Perth street, remember, you could be driving over the crushed up bits of former houses.

The infamous Taj on Swan at Peppermint Grove - a palatial half-built mansion that sat derelict for years before it was forcibly demolished by the local council - was ground up into road base.

Instant Waste Management supplies rubble to local governments for use as road base to go under asphalt for minor roads.

But it is not used to build any major roads or highway upgrades in the state.

Mr Hickey said he would like to see the State Government mandate recycled materials for major infrastructure projects.

"One of the stumbling blocks we have is that there is not much uptake from Main Roads for our recycled road base," he said.

"I think there is just a bit of reluctance.

"In Victoria, if you are building and spending millions on roads, there is a requirement to have a percentage of recycled materials in your contract value.

"That's not the case here in WA unfortunately."

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War on waste: Turning unwanted building waste into road base

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More than three million tonnes of building and demolition waste is produced in Western Australia every year, and about two million tonnes of it gets recycled. In the Perth suburb of Bayswater, building waste is taken there in skips from around the city.

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In a small studio in Canberra, artisans are recycling unwanted denim jeans and jackets by turning them into paper.

Paperworks is a not-for-profit social enterprise that uses the art of papermaking to engage marginalised people and those with special needs.

"We were using cardboard and recycled paper in the first few sessions but it was unforgiving and had lacklustre results," chief executive Susanna Pieterse said.

"We started looking into using textiles and became aware of the great need to recycle textiles - more than 80 per cent of denim actually ends up in landfill.

"We found the longer fibres of textiles helped the paper hold together better.

"We now only use recycled textiles because recycled paper can go into mainstream recycling anyway."

How denim becomes paper

Two pairs of jeans can make about 40 sheets of paper.

To do that, the denim is cut into 1.5cm x 1.5cm pieces (which takes about four hours of cutting), soaked overnight and then put in a Hollander beater for up to six hours.

"It literally shears the blocks of textile apart into a really stringy pulp, very soft to the touch, opaque," Ms Pieterse said.

"Then you use a mould and deckle to make a sheet of paper by dipping it into the vat of pulpy water ... and then lay that wet sheet on top of a felt and the paper is left to dry, which can take about a week."

Paperworks used to run an annual jeans drive but currently has a full stock of denim.

"We're really at the stage where we'd prefer people to buy the product to give us a reason to continue doing the recycling instead of donating more jeans," Ms Pieterse said.

Denim paper turned into cards and seed tiles

Paperworks employs three part-time artisans from disadvantaged backgrounds who make the paper.

Sarah May Sadler, 57, is one of the artisans who has been crafting paper products for five years.

"It's very relaxing, it's quite meditative; with a lot of the things that we do they're kind of repetitive and you can sort of meditate as you're going along," she said.

Allyscha Thomson, 24, started making paper two years ago after her former school teacher suggested the idea.

"I like the feel of it [the pulp] when it's in the water, and making paper from scratch is what I like to do," she said.

The denim paper is crafted into cards, notebook covers and seed tiles.

"We make paper leaves that are seeded with vegetables to encourage children to take an interest in healthy foods and eat what they grow," Ms Pieterse said.

"We're hoping that some schools will take this up as a fundraiser instead of the annual chocolate drive."

Recycling art and craft supplies

Denim is not the only thing Paperworks is recycling.

Volunteers are repackaging and selling donated art and craft supplies from the Paper and the Works shop at the back of Canberra's re-use facility The Green Shed.

"It is entirely volunteer-based and we're able to use the funds that come from that project to actually continue the recycling at Paperworks," Ms Pieterse said.

"We do have a longer-term vision though of being able to offer workplace opportunities there for students with special needs."

But to do that, Paperworks needs more volunteers.

"We are really grateful to still be here since 2009; there are many times when we thought we wouldn't be around and I think it's only thanks to the Canberra community's support over all these years," Ms Pieterse said.

Canberrans can donate art and craft supplies to the Paper and the Works project by clearly marking the items as "For Paperworks" and dropping them off at The Green Shed.

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War on waste: Recycling denim into paper and fostering social inclusion in the process

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In a small studio in Canberra, artisans are recycling unwanted denim jeans and jackets by turning them into paper. Paperworks is a not-for-profit social enterprise that uses the art of papermaking to engage marginalised people and those with special needs.

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Replas is an Australian company that has developed world leading technology to reprocess plastic waste into a range of recycled plastic products.

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Environmentally Friendly

Replas' plastic recycling leads to low maintenance products that are designed to last. Recycled plastic is resistant to termites, microorganisms and moisture, and will never split, rot, crack or need painting.

Through the REDcycle Program Replas is proud to partner with companies, such as Coles and Woolworths, who have taken responsibility for the plastic waste they create. The soft plastic material collected through the program can be recycled by Replas and turned into products designed for outdoor use within the community.

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Replas' plastic recycling leads to low maintenance products that are designed to last. Recycled plastic is resistant to termites, microorganisms and moisture, and will never split, rot, crack or need painting. Through the REDcycle Program Replas is proud to partner with companies, such as Coles and Woolworths, who have taken responsibility for the plastic waste they create.

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Sustainable design, consumption and change

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Sustainable design, consumption and change

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It's much-maligned, but Melbourne's bike share scheme has the right idea. avlxyz/flickr

There's been a boom in sustainable products and packaging from keep cups to green bags - but how important is sustainable design in reducing our global footprint?

Sustainable design can play a critical role in reducing our impact on the environment.

But we need to acknowledge the gap between the large scale of unsustainability described in the scientific literature (suggesting we need a 90% reduction in CO2 emissions and resource use) and the current initiatives employed by designers and the general public to reduce their ecological impact.

Eco-design has its limits

If every Australian household switched to renewable energy and stopped driving their cars tomorrow, total household emissions would only decline by about 18%.

The challenge for design is to identify and engage in the remaining 82% of emissions.

Traditional eco-design has successfully designed energy-efficient appliances such as fridges, lights, air conditioners and TVs. When matched with appropriately-designed, well-insulated homes of modest size, these can easily be powered by renewable energy.

As appliances become more efficient, and renewable energy costs fall, direct household emissions can be massively reduced.

This is not new - the well-designed Rocky Mountain Institute headquarters has been running on renewable energy for near 30 years.

Add the cost of solar panels to your home loan with a large enough capacity to power an electric car or motorbike for your average commute and the repayments could be less than your current combined monthly electricity and fuel bill.

This is a positive trajectory leading to zero emissions from your house and car travel that should be embraced in light of ever-increasing costs of a coal-fired grid (with or without a carbon tax).

But none of this engages the remaining 82% of emissions - or acknowledges that being stuck in traffic for a three-hour commute each day is a terrible use of one's time.

So we need to reframe the question beyond just being efficient. Where does the remaining 82% of emissions come from?

Feeding a bad habit

The embodied emissions in the food we eat (28.3%) and the goods and services we purchase (29.4%) are major contributors.

Green shopping bags are held up as a beacon of sustainable behaviour. But the impact from using a green shopping bag is negligible compared to the embodied energy and emissions of the food you put in it at the supermarket.

Then consider that over 30% of food purchased is wasted in the home and you have a design problem worth resolving.

The embodied energy in the food we waste is equivalent to the amount of energy our homes use.

The way food is packaged, stored and prepared relies on a whole suite of designed appliances (packaging, fridge, freezer and cookware).

The most energy-efficient fridge that allows food to spoil in the back is not good design.

Packaging that does not reseal properly allowing food to spoil is not good design.

Offering only one large portion size is poor design.

The designer has a moral obligation to take partial responsibility for users's actions - acknowledging an intrinsic link between the products that designers design and the everyday activities that people do.

This suggests a more relational approach is needed to understand the problem of "unsustainability" in relation to our everyday activities.

We need to understand what people do with the things we make.

Such understanding is required to lead to more refined design solutions - far beyond just making something "green" or recyclable.

Scaling back and making it work

Designing products with the lowest environmental impact across the entire lifecycle (manufacture, use and end-of-life) is positive practice that should be encouraged.

But this will always be limited in reducing net emissions if the increasing rate and scale of consumption is not in some way restrained.

The counter-philosophy is to find solutions (or activities) with a significantly reduced environmental impact that are capable of working, and encourage their adoption.

Despite the well-documented limitations, the Melbourne bike share scheme is a brilliant example of trying to promote an intrinsically sustainable activity and encourage sharing.

We can also learn from the way Holland's urban planning is designed for the bicycle, and how Brazilian city Curitiba's well-designed bus platforms speed up public transit boarding.

Appropriate design can encourage your default activity to be the most sustainable. It makes it easy to do the right thing.

The debate in Australia on moving towards a lower carbon society is dominated by resistance to change.

Perhaps the greatest use of design is to present images and scenarios of what could be possible for a sustainable society.

We can direct the debate to the diversity of alternatives that are possible, currently exist, work, and for the most part, are better.

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Sustainable design, consumption and change

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There's been a boom in sustainable products and packaging from keep cups to green bags - but how important is sustainable design in reducing our global footprint? Sustainable design can play a critical role in reducing our impact on the environment.

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Beyond recycling: solving e-waste problems must include designers and consumers

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Beyond recycling: solving e-waste problems must include designers and consumers

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Agbogbloshie, an area in the city of Accra Ghana, is usually portrayed as an e-waste dump. A more accurate picture would include the repair and refurbishment economy. Agbogbloshie Makerspace Platform

Agbogbloshie, Ghana is in the news again. International media such as The Guardian, Al Jazeera and the Washington Post have helped turn this place into an infamous example of electronic waste (e-waste) dumping.

I study global flows of discarded electronics, and that research leads me to think that such images badly misrepresent Agbogbloshie, which has been called "the world's biggest e-waste dumpsite."

Among other problems, these portrayals ignore several UN reports that show the story to be much more complex. More than half of the discarded electronics in Ghana are generated by domestic consumers, driven by the growth of Ghana's middle class and its demand for electronics.

Mac-Jordon | Wikimedia Commons

High-quality used electronics sourced from countries outside Africa satisfy much of this growing demand in Ghana and other areas of the world. That means that neither stopping imports of used electronics to Ghana nor recycling them will solve the e-waste problem.

Instead, solutions need to be found "upstream" in the way electronics are manufactured and consumed in the first place. There is also a need for infrastructure to appropriately manage materials from electronics discarded by domestic consumers in Ghana and other places like it.

Narrow focus on recycling

E-waste is usually narrowly defined as a byproduct of consumption. This is odd because doing so leaves out of the equation key issues in the life of electronics such as resource extraction, manufacturing and occupational health and safety for workers. Though it is typical to associate digital technology with notions of a dematerialized "information economy," such an association is a false god.

Serious proposals to reduce e-waste must address how electronics are manufactured in the first place. Some ways to do that include designing electronics that are more durable, repairable and recyclable. Doing so would increase the likelihood that the embodied energy and materials in electronics would be conserved through longer use and for more efficient recovery of components and materials once discarded. Another big part of the equation includes consumer behavior. How many of our digital upgrades result from genuine obsolescence versus fashion?

World Bank data.

To date, efforts to reduce e-waste focus on recycling. In the US, a growing number of states have enacted electronics take-back legislation. These laws have shifted the cost of recycling electronics to consumers without ensuring that manufacturers internalize those costs.

This is perhaps not a bad thing - arguably, people who consume a particular class of commodities should share some responsibility for its end-of-life management. Yet, until electronics manufacturers feel the sting or are able to differentiate themselves in the marketplace on more than just their recycling credentials, they have little or no incentive to modify how their products are designed and made.

An even more concerning development is that electronics manufacturers are challenging established US legal doctrine to make it illegal for consumers to open, modify or repair their own electronic equipment. For example, the printer manufacturer Lexmark won a key case in 2003 that made it illegal for other firms to refill and sell used toner and ink cartridges from Lexmark's printers. These moves by manufacturers have sparked a growing consumer movement to enshrine the right to repair in law.

Fair trade for electronics?

The automobile industry offers a good illustration of the consequences of this shifting legal landscape. For decades, the right to repair and upgrade your own car or to access a wide array of independent aftermarket and repair services of your choice was the norm. As electronics have seeped into automobiles, the industry is taking cues from electronics manufacturers and pointing to provisions in the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act that stymie car owners' abilities to repair their own vehicles or to choose where to have them serviced.

Yet if repair, reuse and resale was the norm in one multi-billion-dollar industry (automobiles), that tells us it is possible in another (electronics). If we buy it, we should maintain the right to repair, reuse and resell it.

The nearly exclusive focus on post-consumer recycling to solve the e-waste problem is itself part of the problem. Mechanized, high-tech recycling destroys the embodied energy built into electronics. It does nothing to reduce the waste that arises during manufacturing. The recycling process also has its own energy demands that add to the overall energy footprint of electronics (though recycling can provide savings compared with raw material extraction). Better than bans on exporting discarded electronics or improving collect-destroy-recycle systems would be to enhance systems of repair and reuse.

The global patterns of trade in discarded electronics are rapidly changing. A growing majority of that trade is occurring within and between areas of the highly diverse global south.

Agbogbloshie Makerspace Platform

Sites such as Agbogloshie, Ghana, are where a flourishing technical sector for electronics repair, reuse and resale meets another thriving, if not always pretty (to some), materials-recovery sector. In removing metals and other valuable materials, processes at sites like these do lead to the release of toxins into the environment and workers.

But people doing this work don't need prohibitions from the global north to save them. There are viable possibilities for bringing versions of fair trade - now used with coffee and other goods to improve workers' conditions - to the exchange and processing of discarded electronics. When it comes to reducing waste from electronics, it is time to experiment with change in how these technologies are produced, consumed and discarded.

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Beyond recycling: solving e-waste problems must include designers and consumers

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Agbogbloshie, Ghana is in the news again. International media such as The Guardian, Al Jazeera and the Washington Post have helped turn this place into an infamous example of electronic waste (e-waste) dumping. I study global flows of discarded electronics, and that research leads me to think that such images badly misrepresent Agbogbloshie, which has been called "the world's biggest e-waste dumpsite."

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What happens to recycling when it goes in the recycling bin? What are the common mistakes householders make in their kerbside recycling? How do Australia's recycling rates compare with the rest of the world?

A new report from Planet Ark Environmental Foundation, titled All Sorted: Answering the Big Recycling Questions, answers all those burning recycling questions, including the top mistakes and main contaminants that confuse people. The report has been commissioned ahead of National Recycling Week, which runs from 9th to 15th November.

Planet Ark surveyed 115 councils across Australia and asked them what the three most common recycling mistakes made by their residents were. Nine out of ten councils said that plastic bags and soft plastics in the recycling bin is one of the most common mistakes made by their residents; nearly half of councils reported residents mistakenly placing kerbside recyclables into the general waste bin; and food contamination of recyclables was the third most common mistake, highlighted by 23% of councils.

"There is a persistent myth that items collected for recycling end up in landfill, but in reality, it's not economic in most states for councils or waste companies to send recycling to landfill due to state waste levies. ​So each of us plays an important role, as our recycling habits influencing the success of the whole recycling system"

- Brad Gray, Head of Campaigns at Planet Ark

Depending on the material recycled, the item may end up locally in Australia or being sent overseas for processing and reuse. Some of the most common materials from kerbside collections are re-processed here in Australia, particularly paper, cardboard, aluminium, steel and PET plastic.

Recycling reduces and can even eliminate the need to extract raw materials, saving limited natural resources. For example, 75% of all of the aluminium ever produced is still in use today because it can be recycled infinitely.

It's not just the planet that benefits from our efforts, as business and people profit too. The process of recycling and composting creates more jobs than incineration and landfill, with 9.2 jobs in recycling for every 2.8 jobs in landfill.

In addition, a study of almost 24,000 individuals across 27 countries found a significant positive relationship between recycling and life satisfaction. The result was linked with the positive emotions associated with altruistic behaviour and doing the 'right thing'.

The kerbside recycling rate in Australia is currently 51%, with the volume of waste continuing to grow. Due to its unique landscape and dispersed population, Australia faces different recycling challenges than those of Europe for example, where the recycling rate is 42% but much is incinerated. New recycling processes, services and stewardship programs are continuing to develop to meet Australia's challenges.

"By keeping up to date with local recycling information and participating in government, community or industry take-back programs Australians can help us become a world leader," said Gray. "Recycling has become part of our everyday lives and the more we do it the better it is for the planet, for profits and even for people."

Looking to the future, new product stewardship schemes such as those that deal with TVs, computers, batteries and plastic bottles, will help promote the recycling and safe disposal of items that were routinely sent to landfill in the past. The new Australian Recycling Label has also just been launched to help reduce consumer confusion.

Visit RecyclingWeek.PlanetArk.org website or call the National Recycling Hotline on 1300 733 712 for further information about any of Planet Ark's National Recycling Week initiatives.

National Recycling Week is kindly supported by Associate Sponsors Australian Packaging Covenant, Bingo Bins and 'Cartridges 4 Planet Ark'.
READ THIS NEXT: 6 Brilliant ways Sweden recycles its garbage READ THIS NEXT: Australian companies are slacking off when it comes to recycling READ THIS NEXT: How to responsibly dispose or recycle household items when Spring cleaning or moving
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Recycling Week: All your recycling questions answered | 1 Million Women

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What happens to recycling when it goes in the recycling bin? What are the common mistakes householders make in their kerbside recycling? How do Australia's recycling rates compare with the rest of the world? A new report from Planet Ark Environmental Foundation, titled All Sorted: Answering the Big Recycling Questions, answers all those burning recycling questions, including the top mistakes and main contaminants that confuse people.

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Sustainable designs based on renewable resources

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Sustainable designs based on renewable resources

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Starch-based plastics, plantation timbers, sugar-cane fibre, and vegetable inks and dyes, can all be manufactured from sustainably grown plants.

When designing a product choose renewable resources rather than non-renewable ones.

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Starch-based plastics, plantation timbers, sugar-cane fibre, and vegetable inks and dyes, can all be manufactured from sustainably grown plants. When designing a product choose renewable resources rather than non-renewable ones.