https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-01-27/is-recycling-really-worth-it-/101853072
I feel the whole thing is a distraction, and if the government was really concerned then we would have to put our recycling bin out weekly and this has never been done in Australia. Australia can’t even recycle certain plastic waste and was sending it offshore to be processed, that is not good enough. If it can’t be done on shore then stop producing it in the first place. A classic example is the plastic wrapping that we have mountains of stored in warehouses without any solution to that problem.
People no longer and rightly accept the blame for the production of these recycled materials given that they don’t own the factories that produce them. Yet the media always put the blame at the feet of the public. How does that work? Just repeating the same BS doesn’t make it true, when the manufacturers are responsible and avoid responsibility.
Any additional recycling such as large cardboard boxes and packaging from new furniture and household goods requires us to make extra trips to the recycling centre. So what about people that don’t have a car, how are they to transport large cardboard boxes, plastic wrapping etc to the recycling centres? Example when moving house or getting new furniture delivered which often comes in heavy duty cardboard, plastic wrap and polystyrene in the packaging.
This is not so easy to get to a recycling facility if one doesn’t have a car; as it is with the average car being smaller these days it will require several trips to the recycling centre. There are many difficulties for ordinary people including the elderly and those with mobility problems trying to get these things to a recycling centre. Why can’t the recycling truck be a weekly service and to pick up the larger items like the packaging from a new lounge suite or other furniture.
Also the old furniture that is unable to be reused is also a recycling issue, where does that go? It is not like recycling a fridge or old washing machine. Wooden furniture can sometimes be broken down and the wood repurposed but what about the fabric, the sponge and springs? Old TV sets and other electronic devices where nothing can be repurposed end up in landfill.
