CHANGES to the design of plastic bottles will help prevent litter at local beaches and waterways, environmentalists say. Beach Patrol Australia says that plastic straws and drink bottle lids are among the most frequently littered items on Australian beaches. It says that caps tethered to plastic bottles would help prevent pollution.
BPA co-founder Dr Ross Headifen said “we collect hundreds of lids on our beaches every day. By mandating tethered caps, we can significantly reduce plastic pollution, avoiding millions of bottle tops from leaking into our environments.” “Our volunteers simply can’t keep up, we need to stop plastic entering our oceans at the source. It is a simple fix with a big benefit,” he said.
The Boomerang Alliance is a national coalition of groups which hope to see plastic pollution greatly reduced. The charity’s packaging product stewardship lead Birte Moliere said “most drink bottles can now be collected for recycling at container refund collection points but bottle tops are not eligible items in most states. As a result, unattached caps that aren’t littered, often end up in landfill. They should be collected and recycled. The best way to make this happen is to tether the lids to the bottles.”
“The Boomerang Alliance is calling for new packaging laws that make producers responsible for managing their packaging, including their collection and recovery with mandatory reduction, recycling, recycled content and reuse targets,” Moliere said. “Beverage containers should only be allowed to be placed on the market if producers can guarantee the recovery of both the bottle and cap.”
First published in the Frankston Times – 8 October 2024