A single-use plastic and metal drinking vessel dubbed a \u201cfranken-can\u201d has been given the dubious honour of the nation\u2019s worst plastic packaging.<\/p>\n
The plastic-metal hybrid can, which is not accepted by container refund schemes or easily recycled \u2013 has won the inaugural Unpackit award for Australia\u2019s worst packaging.<\/p>\n
The Unpackit awards have been established by the Australian Marine Conservation Society (AMCS), Plastic Free Foundation and WWF-Australia to highlight the volume of plastic packaging used by Australians each year \u2013 an estimated 1.3m tonnes.<\/p>\n
Cip Hamilton, plastics campaigns manager for AMCS, said of the inaugural award winner: \u201cThe franken-can is a completely unnecessary plastic-metal hybrid can that essentially ticks every box for problematic packaging.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018We really need the government to be making producers responsible for the full life cycle of their packaging,\u2019 says AMCS\u2019s Cip Hamilton. Photograph: Unpackit Awards<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re seeing cafes use these single-use plastic items for customers who are dining in,\u201d replacing reusable cups and glasses, she added.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re likely to end up as street litter<\/a>, and they\u2019re not accepted by containment refund schemes as other beverage containers are,\u201d she said. \u201cThey\u2019re really problematic and really have no place in our economy.\u201d<\/p>\n The cans have already been banned in Western Australia, but Hamilton said: \u201cUnfortunately, it\u2019s a state-by-state model at the moment. The Australian government\u2019s very overdue in its national packaging laws.<\/p>\n \u201cWe really need the government to be making producers responsible for the full life cycle of their packaging.\u201d<\/p>\n The winner of Australia\u2019s best packaging was the Udder Way refillable milk kegs, which have averted the need for 4.5m single-use plastic milk bottles since 2021. Photograph: Unpackit Awards<\/p>\n Dishonourable mentions for worst packaging included major supermarkets<\/a> for wrapping avocadoes in unnecessary plastic netting, and individually wrapped Mentos mints.<\/p>\n Almost 60% of litter<\/a> collected in Australia is packaging, and the Unpackit awards also acknowledged ideas that address the issue of plastic pollution.<\/p>\n Sign up for the Breaking News Australia email<\/a><\/p>\n The winner of the award for Australia\u2019s best packaging was the Udder Way<\/a>\u2019s 18L refillable milk kegs, which work like beer kegs and have averted the need for an estimated 4.5m single-use plastic milk bottles since 2021.<\/p>\n WWF-Australia\u2019s No Plastic in Nature policy manager, Malene Hand, described the Udder Way as \u201ca brilliantly simple alternative to single-use plastic milk bottles\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cThe idea came from Tasmanian cafe owner Ed Crick, who was tired of seeing plastic milk bottles piling up at his cafe every day,\u201d she said in a statement.<\/p>\n Hamilton said the milk kegs were available in venues using high volumes of milk, such as cafes and event spaces, and were beginning to be rolled out in supermarkets for refills for individual consumers \u2013 timely given strait of Hormuz-related increases in the price of resins for making plastic containers.<\/p>\n Honourable mentions went to Bearhug<\/a> for its reusable pallet wrap system, and to Cercle<\/a>\u2019s cafe-based reusable coffee cup system.<\/p>\n Bearhug was \u201cstarted by a truck driver who saw pallets being reused with every load, but the single-use wrap \u2026 ending up in the bin\u201d, Hamilton said. One Bearhug wrap displaces 350kg of single-use plastic over its lifetime, and has avoided the need for 25 tonnes of soft plastics in 12 months.<\/p>\n Unpackit was based on awards by the same name established in New Zealand more than a decade ago, Hamilton said. \u201cWhat we saw there was businesses changing in the way they were packaging their products in response to these awards.<\/p>\n \u201cThe only way we will end plastic pollution is cutting back on how much plastic is being produced, and holding producers responsible for what they\u2019re putting on their shelves.\u201d<\/p>\n Independent MPs Zali Steggall, Sophie Scamps and Kate Chaney announced the Unpackit award winners in Canberra on Wednesday morning.<\/p>\n Stuart Alexander & Co., which manages the Mentos portfolio in Australia, was contacted for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A single-use plastic and metal drinking vessel dubbed a \u201cfranken-can\u201d has been given the dubious honour of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":473062,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[242,85,46,141],"class_list":["post-473061","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/473061","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=473061"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/473061\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/473062"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=473061"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=473061"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=473061"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}