In februari 2019 kreeg ik een telefoontje van Sanja en ze vroeg me:
"Ken je het probleem van plastic?"
Ik geloofde toen nog dat alles gerecycleerd werd, maar des te meer ik leerde des te meer ik besefte dat we mede vervuiler zijn zelfs al vinden we het niet leuk. Het goede nieuws is dat het telefoontje ging over het verspreiden van talrijke innovatieve oplossingen dankzij sociale media. Iedereen die wil samenwerken kan beloond worden naar inzet.
Is er een werkelijk een plastic afval probleem?
Bekijk deze video van 60 Minutes Australia zodat je kan nadenken of je vervuiler wil blijven of wil samenwerken om mee te werken aan de oplossing door innovatieve oplossingen te delen zodat anderen die in de problemen zitten deze oplossingen kunnen vinden en implementeren in hun gebied.
Klik op deze link voor de video AUSTRALIAN TV : RECYCLING HOAX not so Fantastic
Blijkbaar is het grootste probleem dat er in de voorbijgaande 40 jaren het meeste van onze plastic afval is verkocht, verzonden en gedumpt in de "arme landen".
Zelfs in 2019 er momenteel minder dan 5% van het plastic dat wij krijgen of kopen en weggooien werkelijk gerecycleerd kan worden. Dit wil zeggen dat meer dan 95% plastic afval niet kan of mag gerecyleerd worden omwille van wegetving, procedures, toxines of hoge kosten.
Plastic vervangen kan voor sommige producten toch zal de plastic productie in de komende jaren diverse keren verdubbelen omdat er enorm veel Plastic nodig is om te kunnen voldoen aan de noden van de consumten die het plastic voorwerp krijgen, kopen, gebruiken en weggooien.
Bewuster worden over het vuil dat we weggooien kan onmiddellijke verandering brengen. Kijk en analyseer zelf wat er allemaal van Plastic is gemaakt en hoeveel plastic je weggooit doorheen de dag?
Follow things that makes you smile and be the change | Dennis™
We live in this wasteful world where the idea of recycling lessens our shame gives us a great feeling when we eliminate our plastic wate by dragging our bins for the people that come to our houses and gather it. We are helping the environment and yet there is a plastic problem. We are being conned says the documentary Australia TV. Australia, just like Europe, America and Russia are stuck in gigantic growing recycling crisis.
Most of us believe it is easy to salvage and reuse plastic but the reality is most of it
gets buned, buried in the ground or dumped in the ocean.
Malaysia, China, Thailand and lot of other countries are 'getting' the world's plastic.
This is not a very pleasant sight to see mountains and mountains of waste but it's not just any garbage this is good old Ozzy rubbish plastic straight from your recycling bin to here just outside of Kuala Lumpur Malaysia has become a toilet for other people's rubbish in fact we are a toilet not surprisingly the locals are none too pleased so please think our rubbish on but this is the dirty truth of the big lie in recycling
Daren Hebron is teaching his six-year-old son James about recycling their household rubbish is important to separate the paper and the plastic but in reality these
days much of it is just a waste of time because you put in the bin most of it ends up in the waste dumps.
Haydon brainy tells it like it is this is not a sexy business.
This plastic rubbish is a pain in the ass it is I just put my hand a paper on
the ceiling he runs a commercial recycling business in South East
Melbourne and every day his warehouse fills up with plastic waste
he can't recycle morally we want to do something forward the default calculate
of it what am I meant to do eat it myself you just what do you do gotta gather tip
so the majority of the plastic just ends up down the tip oh yeah hey official if
I could sell it I would sell it don't worry about that with the amount of plastic in the system it's a big issue is not a huge amount huge system Haden's headache comes from what few realize about australia's recycling industry and that is for the last two decades
it's been dependent on China up until January last year most of our plastic waste was bought and shipped to their factories to be sorted and melted down into new plastic products it was a system that worked well for us and the rest of the Western world until China suddenly closed its doors so the Chinese were the biggest player weren't they
they were taking the vast bulk of our rubbish in Australia absolutely yes it's been a tradition over the last 20 years China has been sucking in resources from around the world and recyclables suggest that they're just another resource Tim Yui is the CEO of the southern Metropolitan Regional Council one of three major recycling facilities in Western Australia this is about half a day's work this is about half a day's worth so the trucks will come here he says when China stopped taking aussi plastic bales of rubbish began piling up across the country not surprisingly our recycling industry couldn't cope when they decided to say no more we're not taking any more of your rubbish well how did that affect us nationally and globally it made a massive impact because the amount of material that was going there there were aren't enough
markets around the rest of the world to take it in.
China had been taking a staggering 125,000 tons of our plastic waste every year recycling companies scoured the world for new buyers they found them in
Southeast Asia Malaysia in particular where hundreds of Chinese operators
relocated setting up illegal factories and buying as much foreign garbage as
they could get their hands on when you throw this stuff into your recycle bin
at home and you think you're doing the right thing you might like to think
again because if you ever needed proof that the system is totally broken look
no further than here in Malaysia where dozens and dozens of these illegal
processing sites mean that your rubbish often just gets dumped buried or even
burned it is a nightmare look at the mess these are illegal rubbish not supposed to be
in Malaysia. Malaysia is now the world's largest importer of plastic rubbish Australia
alone has dumped 71 thousand tonnes of it in the past 12 months this are imported plastic rubbish from overseas from Australia from New Zealand what is call recycling in Australia is not recycling at all look at the mess local lawyer Lee Chi Kwang says Aussie
household rubbish is helping fuel a criminal underworld in plastic recycling he says sites like this one on local farmland are used by illegal operators to dump plastic scraps that they can't make money from it's just one of the many ways these unscrupulous businessman are harming the environment and the people of Malaysia mr. shim is a national shame because this count of sites are scattered nationwide I think the majority of Australians would be horrified to know that their rubbish ends up here it's embarrassing well to Australian please recycle your own please help us by not sending our rubbish to our country it's a big business for those who actually do it illegally Malaysia's Environment Minister yo B in has shut down no less than 150 illegal
factories since July last year but she admits her country is fighting a losing
battle so long as Australia and other Western nations keep sending Malaysia
their waste I really think that everyone should take care of their own rubbish I
must admit I mean I find the scale of this to be quite shocking yeah it's in a
small country like this I mean it's its enormous as nice and we have 400
containers right now in the custom that is a little plastic waste
all classic sways and this is really what I want to do I want to send them
all back to the countries our origin and how to really ask you to solve your own problems you just want to stop it at the port and say take the rubbish back yes
coming up where is all this polluted water going to go the dude thought they used the river for drinking water yeah stopping the dirtbags cashing in on our broken system so this is the final product and why Malaysia has had enough of our garbage so please think our official that's next on 60 minutes as strange as it sounds Australia's problem with plastic waste is best seen in Malaysia that's because it's the current dumping ground for the refuse we refuse to recycle ourselves but now the Malaysians have had enough today state minister moon Zi Han and his enforcement team are raiding an illegal factory fueled by ozzie rubbish. So look at that Lydia fall should you Coolridge that's an Australian brandy.
It's not long before we discover bags and bags of Australian household plastic this rubbish is for sure well there's no doubt about it that's that's all Australian branch.
Inside clandestine factories like this one where our old water bottles and
other plastic packaging ends up being sorted by hand and washed with damaging
chemical where is all this polluted water going to go in the river yeah but
don't they use the river for drinking water yeah
eventually it's melted down into pellets
to make new plastic products so this is
the final pilot product and what did I
do with these pellets they were they can
process it to to make a plastic bag
another type of a product
this illegal plant is shut down but its
closure makes little difference to the
overall problem there are hundreds of
similar factories all across Malaysia
you've shut down a hundred and fifty
yeah
illegal plants yes you lie since last
July and yet we have seen in the past
few days yes do a lot more with this
there are dozens more yes not dozens
yeah a lot more the scale is just so big
Malaysia's Environment Minister yo B in
admits her country doesn't have the
resources to police the unlawful trade
in plastic waste so her country has now
joined Vietnam Thailand Indonesia and
India in imposing strict restrictions on
imports and new permits and she warns
it's only the beginning
Malaysia's doors will soon closed on
Australian rubbish for good I do not
blame ordinary Australian I think most
of the people do not know this is
happening but now that we had we know
that this is happening that we need a
solution so now you need our help to
deal with our rubbish that's ironic is
now yeah oh that's quite a shocking
thing to say for a developing country to
have to turn around and say Australia
take back your own rubbish
[Music]
Malaysia's tough stance means back home
Australia's recycling industry is
running out of options
many waste companies have been
stockpiling unwanted plastic as they
search for new buyers in Asia but it's
no solution for a crisis that grows by
the truckload
do you think when people put their
recycle bin out like this they think
that every bit of its going to be
recycled
sure in Melbourne Port Phillip mayor
dick grouse says his council was one of
more than 20 recently affected when
recycling giant skm was forced to close
its gates following several incidents
where stockpiled material caught fire in
a matter of weeks Port Phillip Council
alone sent 650 tonnes of recycled waste
to landfill the community is entitled to
think that everything that goes in the
recycle bin is recycled but it's not is
it
our councils recycler closed its doors
because it was a fire hazard and in that
time there was recycling going into
landfill and it was a betrayal of what
we aspire to do the betrayal around
Australia runs much deeper than that
these photos taken last week in Victoria
show household plastic stacked three
metres high in the warehouses of
multiple recycling companies
hayden brainy who runs a recycling
business says much of it will likely end
up buried in the ground I would have
thought the public perception is that
when you take that recycle bin to the
curb you think you've done the right
thing
Pontius Pilate watch my hands my friend
it's done oh we know it's in a nice way
so what's the problem I've done the
right thing I've made certain that that
plastic and that inverted commas
recyclable stuff goes in their bin it's
then up to the council state government
federal government regulation do do
something about it and so at the moment
it's a challenge because I think
everyone's put their head under the
donor but they should vision though
because this is Lee isn't isn't this the
most basic of environmental problems
there should be someone in Si Allison
but here can I help you how can I help
you get to the coalface volunteer
[Music]
the waste industry is really good at
transporting the waste issue is really
good at bailing and they've been really
good at shipping it overseas what we
haven't been good is taking that next
step onshore on here in in Australia
David Hodge is one of the few recyclers
in our country who is actually recycling
plastic this is making an end product
that then gets sold in Australia his
business plastic forests takes the most
contaminated waste you can imagine and
turns it into new plastic products I
think most people in Australia feel lied
to I think they feel disappointed 90
plus percent of people do want to
recycle and they need to be enabled to
be able to do that that's why you know
if we need more businesses like plastic
forests to keep the plastic as plastic
and not just sort of put it in a hole in
the ground why haven't we got more
people doing it here rather than
shipping it offshore we haven't built
the infrastructure we haven't thought
ahead you know there's there's been no
planning there's been no forethought and
now we're here and we're drowning in in
plastic
[Music]
yeah a nation drowning in plastic is
something six-year-old James Hebburn
sees every time he goes to the beach he
does what he can to fix it but it's a
losing battle by the time he grows up
there'll be more plastic in the ocean
than fish when you see that plastic down
the beach what do you think when you see
it on the beach
pick it up what does the plastic do to
the fish kill it really and kill birds
so you think it's pretty dangerous yeah
good job today mate there's another one
hello I'm Liam bartlett thanks for
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