Let the greener games begin!
Clean Up Australia & PepsiCo have kicked off a national program to build a circular economy for packaging at sporting facilities.
Greening the Green is an innovative new program that streamlines rubbish separation, collection, and recycling at local sporting grounds. Facilities have the option of collecting valuable recyclables such as soft plastics and beverage containers through specific bins placed in high usage areas.
A pilot is underway at ELS Hall Park in Ryde, NSW with the Ryde Hawks Baseball League. A further 20 sporting grounds across Australia have signed up to the program with a total of 110 to be included over the next three years.
A partnership between PepsiCo, Clean Up Australia and REDcycle, Greening the Green empowers the users of these facilities to become part of the solution, known as a circular economy.
Soft plastics are collected by REDcycle, shredded and delivered to Replas, where they are moulded into useful equipment such as seating, bollards, signage and even sports trophies. Each participating sporting group is gifted new piece equipment made from recycled soft plastics, highlighting the benefits a circular economy can bring to the local community.
Clean Up Australia Chairman, Pip Kiernan said “Volunteers are telling us that soft plastics are one of the more common plastic items they are now removing during local clean ups. And each year the volume of these soft plastics is rising. Greening the Green gives us the perfect opportunity to begin to change Australia’s recycling habits head-on, starting at the place where so many of us spend family time on weekends – our local sporting venues,” said “This program will show Australians that the soft plastics we take for granted as packaging can be transformed into items the community can use. It’s recycling in action”.
“We are thrilled to be partnering with Clean Up Australia and REDcycle to help educate consumers on what can be recycled and create more opportunities to make it easier for Australians to recycle their soft plastics through the Greening Green program at sporting facilities around the country” said PepsiCo Australia and New Zealand CEO Danny Celoni.
Australians create 2.5 million tonnes of plastic waste each year . Only 12% of this is recycled with the rest ending up in our parks, roadsides, bush, waterways, oceans or in landfill as rubbish.
At approximately 449,000 tonnes, soft plastics represent one-third of plastic packaging sold each year, but only six per cent of the soft plastic waste that’s created is being recycled - mainly because soft plastics cannot currently be effectively recycled in kerbside collections.
This leaves approximately 422,000 tonnes of soft plastics to end up in landfill.
Clean Up Australia volunteers report that 27.5% of food packaging they collect through their Clean Up efforts is soft plastics. Chip and confectionery wrappers topped the single plastic item count in 2018, representing 12.7% of items surveyed.
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Clean Up Australia acknowledges the Traditional Owners of Country throughout Australia and their continuing connection to land, waters and community. We pay our respects to Elders past and present.