Plastic cups, straws and bags could be no more in Maribyrnong as council considers ban
A COUNCIL in Melbourne’s west has taken another stride forward in its aim to ban plastic from all its venues and events.
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MARIBYRNONG Council has taken another stride forward in its aim to ban plastic from all council venues and events.
The council will undertake a feasibility study to assess the amount of single-use plastic used across all council delivered or funded initiatives.
Other Melbourne council areas including Darebin and Port Phillip banned plastic earlier this year, with Maribyrnong now set to follow suit.
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Councillors moved a motion last week to conduct the report in order to push forward with the ban.
The study, which is due to be completed by the end of the November, will also identify alternative solutions to plastic. Following its completion, the council will draft a policy, action and transition plan for consideration.
“It’s an easy step to take, there are other alternatives — biodegradable products … we should also look at reusable products,” councillor Catherine Cumming said.
According to the Australian Plastics Recycling Survey, Australians used close to six billion single-use plastic bags in the 2016-17 financial year.
Only three per cent of these plastic bags were recycled and 80 million ended up as litter.
New data from the council’s Recycle Right campaign revealed that across the municipality, more than 58 per cent of household recycling bins had at least one item that could not be recycled, the most common offender being soft plastics.
The campaign ran from November 2017 to March this year and inspected 10,000 bins across Maribyrnong.
West Footscray resident Amy Pritchard said she supported the council’s sustainability push.
“This is a great move by council … there is no environmentally friendly single-use options,” she said.
Other residents said the council should be more focused on issues such as fixing road conditions than axing plastic.
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