Plastic Waste Management in Australia
According to the UNEP, marine litter exists because of the solid waste materials that enter the ocean as a result of plastic products consumption. The danger associated with the marine litter and plastic debris stems from its harmful impact on the fauna and the environment. The plastic waste could be found in the oceans, coastal environment and running rivers. They can be brought directly or indirectly (Taticchi, Carbone & Albino 2013). The plastic waste is not the only problem that developing and developed countries face, they are also required to manage waste, especially in urban areas (Gupta & Somanathan 2011).
The following section provides an analysis of plastic waste management by Plastic Collective Company, Australia. The report provides an analysis of the local, regional and international efforts to limit plastic waste and encourage economic recycling to be able to position Plastic Collective on the global plastic waste management map. The report starts by discussing the background of Plastic Collective and the Australian government efforts in managing the plastic waste, then it analyses the role of planning, organizing, leading and control. Then it provides a recommendation of three strategies that could be adopted by the Plastic Collective.
The plastic industry in Australia production is estimated at 1.2 million tons per year that represents about 10% of the Australian manufacturing activity. The industry employs about 85 thousand people. The consumption was estimated at 1.5 million tons in 2012/2013. Only 20% of plastic consumption was recycled. Plastic represents a source of pollution, when it enters the ocean, it floats on the water surface or sinks into the sea if it is made from polymers that are denser than the sea water. In the open ocean, plastic accumulates in convergence zones in the South and North Atlantic, South and North Pacific and the Indian Ocean. The UNEP estimated that more than 13 thousand pieces of plastic litter float on the ocean surface. The economic growth and the increased population are expected to increase the pollution of the marine environment in the developing and the developed countries. The plastic pollution in Australian waters was reported to be highly concentrated on parts of the coastline all around Australia. Certain areas were reported at high densities, specifically, near the urban centers as well as remote areas (Millicer 2017).
The Plastic Collective Company was established several years ago by Louise Hardman. Her main goal was to stop plastics entering the ocean due to its harmful effect on the fauna that dies slowly and painfully when it eats the plastic debris hidden in the grass. Ms. Louise wanted to create value from the plastic waste by developing a small machine able to remold the plastics into practical and useful items that have value. In addition, she provides educational training to people in order to reduce plastic single use. She succeeded in developing a mobile recycling machine called the Shruder, also she runs different workshops ‘Know your Plastics’ to enable people to transform plastic waste. These activities represent the Plastic Collective major business (Plastic Collective Co. 2018a).
Background of Plastic Collective
The ecological stability theory involves the usage of the concept of resilience, it is used to study population interactions and their responses. Holling (1973), as cited in Cote & Nightingale (2012), defined resilience to be the system that absorbs disturbances among persistence and efficiency, change and constancy and unpredictability and predictability for the aim of keeping continuous equilibrium. Accordingly, a resilient material can continue to keep its original shape after stretching bending or compressing. Plastic is a material that could deform in the yield point that represents the transformation from essentially elastic behavior to plastic behavior. Plastic can return to its original shape following the impact that caused the deformation and before exceeding its elastic limit (Eraydin & Ta?an-Kok 2013).
The circular economy is applied as an alternative to the linear make-use-dispose economic model. The circular economy is concerned with the planning efforts of increasing the recovery of the waste materials that can be recycled and reused in developing new products. Increasing the recycling of plastic to 55% is likely to reduce the landfilling by 10% at maximum, delivering by this a significant benefit to the environment (Lord 2016).
There are several challenges related to the implementation of waste recycling plans. For example, the risks associated with using plastic substitutes. Also, implementing policies that address the obstacles to sustainability for plastic requires using a mix of measures at each governance level (Schweitzer et al. 2018; Guerrero, Maas & Hogland 2013).
The Plastic Collective major goal is to deliver the Shruder program remote communities that lack waste collection. Its mission is to prevent plastics leaking into the environment through empowering communities to transform plastic waste. The company strategy to achieve this mission depends on developing educational programs with practical training and tools. As part of the circular economy, the company strives to transform plastic waste into a valuable resource that generates income for communities. This could be achieved through the public awareness and the Shruder machine. This machine has 6×4 ft trailer and runs off a 2kW generator. It transforms plastic waste into shred, extruded and molded products. Plastic Collective’s strategy is based on three major pillars; to empower knowledgeable people, to innovate new product designs and materials and to create practical and innovative machinery, like the Shruder machine. The Shruder program provides people with ideas to create their own projects based on machinery and training. They can produce valuable recycled plastic output that takes the form of raw material, molded and cord products. It is advantaged for its cost-effectiveness and mobility to remote areas. The Shruder program is an integrated solution that allows businesses to contribute positively to social responsibility and sustainability (Plastic Collective Co. 2018a).
The human behavior is mainly directed by individuals’ belief in their self-efficacy. This personal capability to regulate life activities and events represent a major incentive to perform in a certain matter. The developed literature concerning the self-efficacy impact on human behavior represents a predictor of pro-environmental behavior. Also, it explains the spill-over effects of transforming from easy sustainable actions to difficult ones (Reese & Junge 2017).
Ecological Stability Theory
The marine plastic debris is an essential factor, which is largely harmful, hidden from sight, hard-to-quantify and exists beyond the jurisdiction. There is no singular entity responsible for reducing its effect. It should be organized in a collective manner through the coordination of different stakeholder to keep the sustainability of the environment. With regard to the land-based sources of debris, the decision makers in countries usually concern with the source of origin that causes the debris. The policy responses fall within three major categories represented in; the mitigation of the quantities of plastic that enters the ocean, making efforts to reduce the amount of harm that plastic causes and cleaning up the plastic that already entered the ocean (Mendenhall 2018).
The global role of organizing plastic recycling and their contribution is coordinated under the umbrella of the social and solidarity economy (SSE) and the ecological economy (EE). The guiding principles and community-based initiatives are considered. Moreover, the International Solid Waste Association stated that informal recycling, repair systems and reuse, could achieve 20–30% recycling rates within low-income countries (Gutberlet 2015).
Applying state-approved collective systems, enables the producer to manage waste through the organization of the specific take-back system. Also, it can use incentives like establishing a scheme for deposit-refund (Watkins et al. 2017).
Also, the European Commission published its Plastics Strategy in 2018, in response to the increasing problems of plastic. Its strategy aims to lay the foundation for a more sustainable plastics economy that represents a new stage in keeping the environmental sustainability. In addition, the Swedish Government launched its official inquiry in 2017 to measure and respond to the negative environmental impact of plastics (STEPS 2017; Pires, Martinho & Chang 2011).
The Australian Government used to fund a different range of initiatives that aim to remove debris in cooperation with the industry, state, territory, community groups and local governments. These initiatives concerned with projects of waterways and beach cleanup and the plastic waste removal from ecologically sensitive areas. The offered funds are introduced by the Department of the Environment’s Green Army Project. In addition, the government introduced $700,000 by the Reef Trust to clean the marine debris. The Queensland government also supports the Gulf of Carpentaria and Arnhem Land, the Cape York Peninsula and the National Landcare Program to organizations that are engaged in the clean-up activity (The Senate 2016).
The integration between the Shruder machine designed by Louise Hardman and the Dave Hakken’s Precious Plastic modular machines resulted in a developed new machine, which is light enough to be transported to remote areas. Also, it can be powered by electricity or solar energy. By this, it becomes more cost effective, long life, reliable and durable and capable of shredding 5 kg. of plastic per hour. It can process raw shredded plastics used in household recycled items or buildings. The latest developed machine was released on May 2018 (Plastic Collective Co. 2018d).
In Australia, the responsibility of applying the environmental laws goes to the states and the territories. They have to manage the issues related to pollution and waste. The problematic issue is that the marine plastic pollution can pass from the state water to other areas within the Commonwealth water. This means that the plastic waste passes across different jurisdictions. This situation leads to the necessity of coordination between different jurisdictions to manage marine plastic pollution. Unfortunately, the commonwealth was accused of not fulfilling the leading national role of coordination between the states and jurisdictions. Due to the different aspects related to plastic waste management, national leadership is highly important. The Australian government should also take place in the international leadership efforts. It should get more involved in the regional programs that have useful mechanisms in dealing with marine plastic pollution (The Senate 2016).
Circular Economy
Leadership plays a vital role in sustainable development, the top of the organization is capable of pursuing the sustainable strategy that leaders act accordingly. They use different management tools to influence staff members and other stakeholders to maintain sustainability. In 2016, Ms. Louise the founder of Plastic Collective developed the Shruder. Her passion for plastic waste reduction was supported by her action. Being a Coffs Coast Innovation Grand Prize winner in 2017, Ms. Louise hired Mark Wolf the CTO and her brother, Steve Hardman the serial entrepreneur of technology businesses in order to scale the company. They represent effective leaders that can effectively manage the team to achieve the company major goal (Plastic Collective Co. 2018c).
In the remote areas, the plastic debris represented higher composition, they are created because of the marine industries, for example, fishing and shipping. Although, the regions near the urban areas have the largest share of the marine debris. This dangerous impact of plastic on the environment requires control of the domestic power. Control should be adopted regardless of the source of pollution, either offshore or from the coastal activities. Control can take place over the existing pollution and over the source itself, mainly the product design and product pan (Dace et al. 2014).
The consumer products, packaging and parts made of plastic represent the origin of all of the marine debris. The plastic production represents an “archetypically linear sector”. The end of the production, consumption-waste chain is likely to be the natural environment including oceans. Recycling plastic is economically ineffective and cannot compete with virgin materials. This matter led to considering ‘biopolymers’ in the product design in order to make a truly biodegradable that can substitute plastic and pan its harmful environmental effects. Although biopolymers will not be suitable for all products, it will limit the negative impact of using plastic. Also, it requires increasing the agriculture production (Zeng et al. 2017)
The governments could control the harmful impact of plastic debris by panning two types of plastic products, including microbeads or primary microplastics and carrier bags. Plastic bags pan is common in different countries and results in decreasing the amount of plastic waste. Also, the recycling of plastic containers represents a sort of governmental control. A standardized monitoring protocol is required to effectively monitor the debris control and to provide a rigorous research on the environmental outcomes (Mendenhall 2018).
In its efforts to control the plastic waste and transform Australia to recycle waste economy, The Plastic Collective initiated two programs; the Shruder program and Eco100 Project. The Shruder program was discussed in details, the Eco100 Project was launched in 2017 with the aim of providing waste collection equipment to more than 100 Eco-warriors in local regions. It sponsors the delivery of litter collection equipment and training programs, plus cleanup days at local events (Plastic Collective Co. 2018b).
It is recommended that Plastic Collective adopt three strategies according to the European Commission (2018), RPC Group (2018) and the International Hellenic University (2015), as follows:
Implementing this strategy requires improving the Shruder design continuously to ensure its effectiveness. The new economic design measure considers the requirements for supporting plastic recycling. The recycled content should follow the quality standards and ensure following the guidelines of sorting of waste and separate collection through the training programs provided by the company.
Challenges Associated with Implementing Waste Recycling Plans
This strategy involves the reduction of plastic usage by consumers. This could be achieved through the social awareness that could be introduced through the workshops and seminars as well as using the social platforms as a communication channel.
Innovation should be encouraged through the company leadership towards enhancing the Shruder capabilities and mobility. The continuous R&D will enable the company to adapt to the environmental changes and to expand its market outside of Australia.
Conclusions:
The plastic industry in Australia production is estimated at 1.2 million tons per year that represents about 10% of the Australian manufacturing activity. The industry employs about 85 thousand people. The consumption was estimated at 1.5 million tons in 2012/2013. The Plastic Collective Company was established several years ago by Louise Hardman. Her main goal was to stop plastics entering the ocean due to its harmful effect on the fauna that dies slowly and painfully when it eats the plastic debris hidden in the grass.
The company provides educational training to people in order to reduce plastic single use. She succeeded in developing a mobile recycling machine called the Shruder, also she runs different workshops ‘Know your Plastics’ to enable people to transform plastic waste. Its mission is to prevent plastics leaking into the environment through empowering communities to transform plastic waste.
Plastic Collective’s strategy is based on three major pillars; to empower knowledgeable people, to innovate new product designs and materials and to create practical and innovative machinery, like the Shruder machine. The Shruder program provides people with ideas to create their own projects based on machinery and training. They can produce valuable recycled plastic output that takes the form of raw material, molded and cord products.
The integration between the Shruder machine designed by Louise Hardman and the Dave Hakken’s Precious Plastic modular machines resulted in a developed new machine, which is light enough to be transported to remote areas.
References:
Cote, M & Nightingale, J 2012, ‘Resilience thinking meets social theory: situating social change in socio-ecological systems (SES) research’, Progress in Human Geography, vol 36, no. 4, pp. 475-489.
Dace, E, Bazbauers, G, Berzina, A & Davidsen, I 2014, ‘System dynamics model for analyzing effects of eco-design policy on packaging waste management system’, Resources, Conservation and Recycling, vol 87, pp. 175-190.
Eraydin, A, Ta?an-Kok, T (eds.) 2013, Resilience thinking in urban planning, Springer, New York.
European Commission 2018, ‘A European strategy for plastics in a circular economy’, European Commission, Brussels.
Guerrero, A, Maas, G & Hogland, W 2013, ‘Solid waste management challenges for cities in developing countries’, Waste management, vol 33, no. 1, pp. 220-232.
Gupta, K & Somanathan, R 2011, ‘Consumer response to incentives to reduce plastic bag use: Evidence from field experiment in urban India’, Delhi School of Economics, Delhi.
Gutberlet, J 2015, ‘Cooperative urban mining in Brazil: Collective practices in selective household waste collection and recycling’, Waste Management, vol 45, pp. 22-31.
International Hellenic University 2015, Introduction to sustainable development, International Hellenic University, Greece.
Lord, R 2016, ‘A valuation of environmental benefits, costs and opportunities for continuous improvement’, American Chemistry Council, USA.
Mendenhall, E 2018, ‘Oceans of plastic: A research agenda to propel policy development’, Marine Policy, vol 96, pp. 291–298.
Millicer, H 2017, ‘Trust of Australia’, Churchill Trust, Australia.
Pires, A, Martinho, G & Chang, B 2011, ‘Solid waste management in European countries: A review of systems analysis techniques’, Journal of environmental management, vol 92, no. 4, pp. 1033-1050.
Plastic Collective Co. 2018a, Our mission, viewed 21 Oct. 2018, <https://www.plasticcollective.co/mission/>.
Plastic Collective Co. 2018b, News, viewed 21 Oct. 2018, <https://www.plasticcollective.co/news/>.
Plastic Collective Co. 2018c, Our team, viewed 21 Oct. 2018, <https://www.plasticcollective.co/team/>.
Plastic Collective Co. 2018d, Shurder program, viewed 21 Oct. 2018, <https://www.plasticcollective.co/brochure/>.
Reese, G & Junge, E 2017, ‘Keep on rockin’ in a (Plastic-) free world: Collective efficacy and pro-environmental intentions as a function of task difficulty’, Sustainability, vol 9, no. 200, pp. 1-13.
RPC Group 2018, ‘A sustainable future with plastic through innovation’, RPC Group, UK.
Schweitzer, J, Gionfra, S, Watkins, E, Pantzar, M & Kettunen, M 2018, ‘Policy approaches to incentive sustainable plastic design’, OECD global forum on environment: Plastics in a circular economy, Copenhagen.
STEPS 2017, ‘Annual report’, STEPS, Sweeden.
Taticchi, P, Carbone, P, Albino, V (eds.) 2013, Corporate sustainability, Springer, Berlin.
The Senate 2016, ‘Toxic tide: the threat of marine plastic’, The Senate, Australia.
Watkins, E, Gionfra, S, Schweitzer, J, Pantzar, M, Janssens, C & Brink, P 2017, ‘EPR in the EU plastics strategy and the circular economy: A focus on plastic packaging’, Institute for European Environmental Policy, Belgium.
Zeng, X, Yang, C, Chiang, F & Li, J 2017, ‘Innovating e-waste management: From macroscopic to microscopic scales’, Science of the Total Environment, vol 575, pp. 1-5.
Order an Essay Now & Get These Features For Free:
Turnitin Report
Formatting
Title Page
Citation
Outline
