Sodasparkle cutting plastic waste

It’s no secret that there are negative consequences of single-use plastic bottles for our environment, but despite this, big soda manufacturers continue to introduce millions of single-use bottles into New Zealand each year.

SodaSparkle will help you to cut down on plastic waste as you can reuse your SodaSparkle bottles over and over again.

Plastic waste a big problem in NZ

New Zealand is way behind the rest of the western world in waste management. Apparently only 50% of our plastics are sent to be recycled  – the other 50% is sent to landfills as our landfill levies our low, meaning it’s often cheaper to send plastic there instead of recycling. According to recycle.co.nz, approximately 252,000 tonnes of plastic waste is disposed of to New Zealand landfills each year where it then takes the average plastic bottle takes 500 years to decompose naturally.

How can you help? Don’t buy any more single-use plastic bottles and reuse your SodaSparkle bottles.

Single-use plastic bottles not recycled to new plastic bottles

Did you know that most single-use plastic bottles that are recycled are not then used to make new bottles? They are typically used to make other plastic products such as buckets, polyester fibre for clothes and wheelie bins, most of which can’t then be recycled any further.

More single-use bottles then need to be manufactured from scratch for the big soda companies using oil by-products and natural gas. It’s a vicious cycle.

You can do your bit to help. Don’t buy single-use bottles, and reuse your SodaSparkle bottles over and over again.

What happens to our recycling once it’s collected?

When we put our recycling bins out for collection, we don’t really think about it again – it’s picked up and gone. But were you aware that most plastic in New Zealand is then shipped offshore to Australia and Southeast Asian countries such as Malaysia, Indonesia, and Thailand to be recycled, as we don’t have the right type pf plastic processing facilities available in this country? (China will stop receiving 24 types of foreign solid waste for recycling as of 1^st January 2019).

Recycling is better than plastic going straight to landfills, but recycling overseas has its own problems, including the environmental impact of shipping, potential environmental side effects of waste, and the concern that anything that was not recycled becoming landfill in that country. Furthermore, a 2016 Ocean Conservancy report showed that China, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam between them accounted for 60 per cent of the plastic waste that ended up in oceans.

Everyone can do their bit to help: stop buying single-use bottles and reuse your SodaSparkle bottles.