According to stuff.co.nz this country’s old plastic bags are about to find new life as fence posts.
This is great news, and the sort of thing that many of us have been discussing and debating since we were made aware of the cache of soft plastics that was growing by the day since China stopped taking it for us.
The Packaging Forum, which runs the Love NZ Soft Plastic Recycling Scheme, has now partnered with new company Future Post to convert some of the stockpile into fence posts. According to Future Post they can use plastics to create a fence post that was better for the environment, while also reducing the amount of plastic sent to landfill. A standard post could be made out of 208 milk bottles, or about 1700 single use plastic bags and the final post would be about 10kg of solid plastic, expected to last about 50 years.
There isn’t any mention of the process used, other than to say that it’s proprietorial, but we can hope that they have taken into account any air pollution that the process may create.
We at ZWE were having a conversation over the weekend about what happens after a company uses up the existing stockpile of plastic and we’re all working to reduce the amount of plastic waste from our households. Any business plan needs to have a future. Some obvious choices would be the manufacturers and suppliers of whiteware and furniture. Buy a bed and a fridge and you have an incredible amount of soft plastic right there, although it’s less likely to be contaminated by food.
In the scheme of things, this is great news. Not only is there a plan for the existing plastic to be recycled into something very useful, but it can become a long-term business case.
We wish them all the best of luck with this plan, and we’re behind them all the way!