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This is the thought that keeps Professor Sarah Dunlop awake at night: every piece of plastic that has ever been made \u2013 and ever will be made \u2013 will eventually break down, piece by piece, into ever-smaller fragments.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s growing international recognition that we can\u2019t recycle our way out of this mess.<\/p>\n
Global negotiations in Geneva, which failed to reach consensus on Friday, were seen as the last chance to convince UN member states to sign up to legally binding measures to limit plastic production to address waste at its source.<\/p>\n
Negotiator Kate Lynch said Australia was \u201cvery disappointed\u201d the session adjourned without resolution for an ambitious global plastics treaty, which aimed to reduce pollution through the lengthy life cycle of plastic products.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis isn\u2019t an ambit claim or rhetoric for us,\u201d she told the session. \u201cWe know that it is an important issue for the global community, particularly the Pacific, where an outsized impact of plastic pollution is felt.\u201d<\/p>\n
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An adult flesh-foooted shearwater (Puffinus carnipes) impacted by marine plastics on Lord Howe Island.Credit: Justin Gilligan<\/p>\n
As plastic ages, it degrades. Most of us have heard of microplastics, which are small pieces of plastic smaller than 5mm.<\/p>\n
Less well-known are nanoplastics, which are invisible to the naked eye but enter the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the food we eat; in ever-increasing amounts.<\/p>\n
\u201cPlastic is toxic, whether it\u2019s virgin or recycled,\u201d says Dunlop, the head of plastics and human health at Minderoo Foundation<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cIt has toxic chemicals in it, and it will break up into micro and nanoplastics which are like a massive army of mini-Trojan horses carrying toxic chemicals into us. It\u2019s a flawed material.\u201d<\/p>\n Chemicals added to polymers in the process of creating different types of plastic cause disruption to human endocrine systems<\/a> and may be carcinogenic<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Australian Packaging Covenant Organisation (APCO), representing the packaging industry, estimates Australians used 1.26 million tonnes of plastic packaging in 2022-23<\/a> \u2013 equivalent to 47 kg of plastic packaging for every person.<\/p>\n Packaging fuels the climate crisis<\/p>\n The overwhelming majority of soft plastic we in use in Australia (more than 90 per cent) is constructed from virgin fossil fuels, rather than recycled plastic polymers.<\/p>\n Global petrochemical companies like ExxonMobil and Dow, and the Chinese state-owned Sinopec, have a massive stake in our dependence on single-use plastic.<\/p>\n Plastic waste in the Lim River near Priboj, Serbia, in January 2023. Demand for single-use plastics continues to grow.Credit: AP<\/p>\n According to research by Minderoo Foundation<\/a>, in 2021 (the most recent figures available) ExxonMobil was the world\u2019s biggest creator of polymers used in single-use plastics.<\/p>\n From 55 of Exxon\u2019s facilities came 11.2 million metric tonnes of polymer plastics that year, which ultimately produced about 5.9 million metric tonnes of plastic waste.<\/p>\n (Asked about the findings, and why the company doesn\u2019t rely more heavily on recycled polymers, a spokeswoman for ExxonMobil said she had \u201cnothing to share on the results of Minderoo\u2019s study\u201d.)<\/p>\n Global plastics leader China<\/a> manufactured an estimated 80 million metric tonnes of plastic in 2021. The UN reports the world produces about 400 million metric tonnes of plastic waste<\/a> each year.<\/p>\n Not only is single-use plastic creating a pollution nightmare, it is fuelling the climate crisis.<\/p>\n Minderoo, and energy transition experts Wood Mackenzie, estimate the global \u201ccradle to grave\u201d greenhouse gas emissions from single-use plastics in 2021 was 460 million tonnes \u2013 equivalent to the total emissions output of the United Kingdom.<\/p>\n From factories here and overseas, single-use plastics now enter our lives in a dizzying and growing number of ways.<\/p>\n Adding insult to injury, we\u2019re paying for the stuff. Research conducted by the Australian Marine Conservation Society<\/a> showed the cost of pre-packaged fruit and vegetables was often higher than loose produce.<\/p>\n A study by CSIRO and University of Toronto, released in April, estimated some 11 million tonnes of plastic<\/a> now sits on ocean floors around the globe.<\/p>\n At the current trajectory, plastic pollution<\/a> will double by 2040, and the rate of plastics entering the world\u2019s oceans would triple in that time. Within 30 years it could surpass the biomass of the world\u2019s fish.<\/p>\n Industry body APCO says 19 per cent of plastic packaging was recovered in 2022-23, while the Environment Department calculates only 13 per cent of single-use plastic is recycled<\/a>. The rest goes into landfill or waterways.<\/p>\n The amount of plastic we consume is rising inexorably.<\/p>\n \u201cAs people, as responsible citizens trying desperately to look after our common home, the planet, we must always think: where does something come from, and where does it go? It comes from fossil fuel, and it goes to waste,\u201d says Dunlop.<\/p>\n \u201cBecause at the moment, we are wedded to the convenience. It\u2019s this death by a thousand conveniences.\u201d<\/p>\n The Minderoo Foundation argues that nothing less than internationally binding instruments \u2013 a Paris Agreement for plastic pollution, if you will \u2013 will stem this toxic tide.<\/p>\n \u2018We can\u2019t recycle our way out of this\u2019<\/p>\n In 2010, the REDcycle scheme was launched with great fanfare, giving consumers a sense of power over the sheer volume of plastic that enters our homes as packaging.<\/p>\n But the soft plastics captured by the REDcycle scheme weren\u2019t recycled into new plastics packaging; they were transformed into ingredients used in concrete, asphalt, street furniture, bollards and shopping trolleys.<\/p>\n Australian Marine Conservation Society plastics campaigner Cip Hamilton describes plastics recycling as a hollow victory.<\/p>\n \u201cRecycling [plastic] really delays our disposal of products \u2013 we need to look at the root of the issue, which is how we can reduce the amount of plastic that we\u2019re using.\u201d<\/p>\n In a factory in Melbourne\u2019s industrial west, the air is acrid with the stench of chemicals. Every hour this factory\u2019s machines thunder along, another tonne of single-use plastic is diverted from landfill.<\/p>\n Much of the degraded plastic being processed here was stockpiled by the ill-fated REDcycle scheme, which collapsed in 2022, all-but wiping out the already-inadequate soft plastics recycling initiatives in Australia.<\/p>\n Australian Food and Grocery Council chief executive Tanya Barden last year told a Senate inquiry that, even at its peak, REDcycle was only collecting 2-4 per cent of soft plastics on the market.<\/p>\n \u201cOne of the problems with the REDcycle system was the lack of processing capacity [and] that is still a significant issue,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Australian Food and Grocery Council chief executive Tanya Barden.Credit: Ryan Stuart<\/p>\n \u201cThere isn\u2019t infrastructure in Australia that can process soft plastic back into food-grade quality [plastic]; existing mechanical recycling can\u2019t do that. So at the moment, you can only put it back into road bases and bollards.\u201d<\/p>\n Tangaroa Blue Foundation chief executive Heidi Tait told the same inquiry that while soft plastics can be transformed into materials like decking and bollards, it doesn\u2019t mean they should.<\/p>\n \u201cThose products that are meant to be the solution to our soft plastics [problem] are just degrading into microplastics in the environment,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cThey start to look ugly, they get pulled out, and they go to landfill … we\u2019re not actually diverting from landfill, we\u2019re actually delaying landfill, and we\u2019re giving these products opportunity to pollute again in process [by] extending their life.\u201d<\/p>\n This is an inconvenient truth. Another inconvenient truth is that in Australia currently, there are four options: use less plastic, send it to landfill, let it wind up in the natural environment, or repurpose it into other single-use products.<\/p>\n Back in the factory in Melbourne\u2019s west, CRDC Australia managing director Shane Ramsey strides between giant bales of tattered soft plastics.<\/p>\n Experts say we can\u2019t recycle our way out of the plastics crisis we\u2019re creating.Credit: AP\/Ben Curtis<\/p>\n Ramsey heads the Australian arm of a company that began as a beach clean-up enterprise in Costa Rica.<\/p>\n Now, the company has factories in four countries, including a fledgling factory in Melbourne that can repurpose one tonne of plastic an hour.<\/p>\n CRDC transforms soft and hard plastics, and aluminised plastics like chip packets, into an aggregate used in building materials called Resin8. It\u2019s lighter and holds more heat than regular building materials, making it an attractive prospect for industry.<\/p>\n Shane Ramsey is managing director of CRDC Australia.Credit: Joe Armao<\/p>\n Ramsay estimates the factory has processed hundreds of tonnes of stockpiled plastic from REDcycle.<\/p>\n \u201cHigh-value plastic should stay in the loop as long as it can,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n \u201cBut ultimately, it gets to the point where it can\u2019t continue in the life it was in, and we need to have an alternative for it.\u201d<\/p>\n CRDC creates lightweight building material from recycled plastics.Credit: Joe Armao<\/p>\n Where do we go from here?<\/p>\n Australia has set a national target for 70 per cent of plastic packaging to be recycled or composted by this year. We\u2019re well behind on the goal \u2013 according to the latest figures available<\/a>, in 2022-23 we managed to repurpose just 19 per cent (down 1 per cent on the previous year).<\/p>\n Before the election, former environment minister Tanya Plibersek said the federal government, states and territories and business were investing $1 billion to recycle an extra 1.3 million tonnes per year.<\/p>\n Loading<\/p>\n \u201cAustralians know how important it is to reduce our plastic waste. That\u2019s why so many are doing their bit to reduce their consumption, reusing where they can and recycling as much as possible,\u201d she told this masthead.<\/p>\n \u201cHaving individuals keen to do their bit is fantastic \u2013 but it\u2019s not enough. More than 70 per cent of a product\u2019s environmental impact is locked in at the design stage, before a customer ever looks at it.\u201d<\/p>\n A departmental spokeswoman said the government remained committed to reform.<\/p>\n Australia has long pushed for a strong new international treaty on plastic pollution<\/a>, and the government has been promising since 2023<\/a> to introduce mandatory packaging design standards and targets.<\/p>\n This mosaic shows the plastic found in the stomach of a single bird, a fledgling in 2023.Credit: Justin Gilligan<\/p>\n In February, the federal Environment Department published the results of a government consultation<\/a> that showed a clear majority of respondents supported Commonwealth regulation of packaging.<\/p>\n Dunlop says to reduce our reliance on plastic we should start being more frugal and thinking more like our great-grandparents who didn\u2019t live with single-use plastic. We also urgently need safe and sustainable alternative materials that don\u2019t contain toxic chemicals, she said.<\/p>\n \u201cThe problem is very serious and accelerating.\u201d she says. \u201cAnd we can act now.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"Plastic](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/1dae55f3ed9d329dc284354c54cba61412083718.jpeg\")
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