Plastic recycling: Environment Minister Sussan Ley launches innovative program for sports clubs

Most plastic in Australia ends up as rubbish, with our recycling rates below 50 per cent. But an innovative new program involving junior sporting clubs aims to change all that.

Local sporting clubs are being enlisted in the war against plastic litter, with powerful incentives attached.

Environment Minister Sussan Ley will today launch Greening the Green, a new program through which sporting organisations will be encouraged to collect soft plastics and beverage containers.

Participating clubs will then be gifted items made from recycled soft plastics – everything from pieces of sporting equipment to seats, bollards, signage and even trophies.

Soft plastics are the items like shopping bags, bubble wrap and soft snack food packs that are not accepted for recycling as part of most Australian council kerbside collections.

Federal Environment Minister Sussan Ley with Christian Lane, Matthew Harris and Daniel Thwaites from the Ryde Hawks Baseball League in Sydney. Picture: Adam Yip/NCA News Wire

An Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering report last year found less than 50 per cent of all plastics were being recycled, and only 10 councils across the country were accepting soft plastics.

The Ryde Hawks Baseball League in Sydney is one of the first clubs to sign up to the scheme, which will eventually include 110 clubs across the country.

Head Coach Matt O’Neill said the initiative would encourage members of the club, their families and ground users to do the right thing with their litter.

“It is amazing to think that the trophies our players receive in the future could be made of recycled soft plastic as a result of this program,” he said.

PepsiCo, which pledged $650,000 at last year’s National Plastics Summit to kickstart the scheme, also announced that they will move to almost all recyclable packaging across their entire product range by the end of 2021.

Take a seat: chairs are just one of the items that can be made from recycled soft plastics.

Ms Ley said recycling had been identified as one of six national manufacturing priority areas in last year’s federal budget, and programs like Greening the Green would help change the national conversation around it.

“We are seeing companies like PepsiCo standing up to address a real issue with soft plastic waste and I congratulate them along with, Clean Up Australia and RED-cycle for this initiative,” she said.

“Greening the Green shows that we can all play a role in recycling and creating a healthier environment and a healthier lifestyle.”

2021 is shaping up to be a watershed year for waste and litter, with South Australia banning single-use plastics in March, and the ACT and Queensland implementing similar bans in July and September respectively.

But new research has also revealed our concerns about single-use plastics dramatically dipped last year during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

A survey of 1000 Australians conducted by Stable Research found more than three in four respondents (77 per cent) said environmental concerns were once again a priority in 2021. But one in four (27 per cent) admitted they had been using single-use plastics during 2020, despite previously trying to avoid them, chiefly because of concerns over hygiene.

The survey was carried out for laundry brand OMO, which has just launched a new Home Refill product, using 50 per cent less plastic.