MILLIONS of the supposedly compostable takeaway coffee cups that drive Fremantle’s cafe culture end up as landfill, prompting calls for a ‘Containers for Change’ scheme similar to plastic bottles. 

The FOGO waste process can’t process the cups, says Plastic Free July founder Rebecca Prince-Ruiz.

“We don’t have any of those facilities to collect it and to do it,” she said, even though they are compostable to Australian standards.

“Organic processing facilities don’t want packaging. They want food organics. They want food waste, food scraps, and garden waste,” Ms Prince-Ruiz said.

“That’s what [FOGOs] are designed for. They’re not designed to process packaging.”

For a coffee cup to be deemed as compostable to Australian standards, 90 per cent of biodegradation must occur within 12 months in a home composting environment.

North Fremantle social farm volunteer Amy Warne, sceptical of the amount of time some packaging takes to break down, advises the average home composter to avoid compostable plastic.

“Most of that stuff [compostable packaging] on the market has to go to an industrial composter,” Ms Warne said.

“A symbol of a seedling doesn’t solve any problems.”

According to popular coffee cup provider BIOPAK, the compostable cups also cannot be recycled due to their plastic liner, with the Australian Packaging Covenant Organisation recommnends labelling coffee cups as “not recyclable” until further notice.

So, unless you have a home compost bin, then your coffee cup belongs in the red lidded bin.

The Chook did a survey along Fremantle’s High Street coffee strip and found that cafes are using around 200 takeaway cups each day, and we bet most of those don’t make it home to go in someone’s composter.

The Chook asked Environment minister Matthew Swinbourne why FOGO couldn’t take care of compostable cups.

“Consumers and FOGO processors often struggle to tell the difference between certified compostable packaging and non-certified or single-use plastic food containers,” Mr Swinbourne said.

“To avoid contaminating compost, coffee cups and their lids should continue to be disposed of in the general waste bin.”

However, Ms Prince-Ruiz thinks that if coffee cup disposal was treated similarly to Containers for Change it would be a much better alternative to just throwing them out.

“At the moment Containers for Change is fantastic because that is an extended producer responsibility scheme,” Ms Prince-Ruiz said.

“The beverage industry is paying not just the 10 cents, which we can get back as consumers, but they’re paying for that material to be collected, to be processed, to support the depots and the infrastructure et cetera.

“We’re not seeing that producer responsibility for all those other [compostable] packaging we’re using,” Ms Prince-Ruiz said.

Mr Swinbourne said his department is “working with industry to explore potential recovery pathways for certified compostable packaging in the future,” while encouraging all Western Australians to opt for and continue to use their keep-cups.

by ISLA TOMLINSON

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EPP ban welcomed

THE Cook government’s blacklisting of moulded expanded plastic packaging (EPP) has been welcomed by Plastic Free July founder, Rebecca Prince-Ruiz who’s happy to see the end of a toxic item.

This month, entering stage two of the Plan for Plastics ban, the supply off EPP to businesses, manufactures, retailers, and distributors has been outlawed

In her 15th year running the Freo-born foundation Plastic Free July, Ms Prince-Ruiz told the Chook whilst EPP is not impossible to recycle, it is difficult and complex.

“[EPP] is the kind of foam packaging that might have been around your fridge or electronic appliances.

“It’s a problematic item in terms of it if it ends up as litter in the environment, it’s easy to break up into small pieces,” Ms Prince-Ruiz said.

A foundation stemming from one South Freo local, Plastic Free July has become a global movement encouraging people to be a part of the solution by pledging to avoid single-use plastics throughout the month of July.

“It was this ripple effect of change, and it gives people something to do about a problem everyone cares about,” Ms Prince-Ruiz said.

“We’d love some Freo people with influence to read this article and take part and spread the message further.

Last year Plastic Free July saw 174 million people participate, avoiding an estimated 390 million kilograms of plastic.

by ISLA TOMLINSON