Local sports clubs sign up for the war against plastic litter

A Sydney baseball club, the Ryde Hawks, has become the first of 110 local sporting organisations to enlist in a national waste reduction program.

Greening the Green is a 12-week initiative to encourage sporting groups to collect soft plastics and beverage containers through the placement of specific bins placed in high areas.

The soft plastics are collected by REDcycle, shredded, and then delivered to Replas, a manufacturer of mixed recycled plastic products.

Each sporting group that takes part in the program will receive recycled plastic equipment, such as seats, bollards, signage, and trophies.

Greening the Green was one of several initiatives announced at last year’s National Plastics Summit, with snack foods manufacturer PepsiCo pledging to invest $650,000 in the program co-sponsored by REDcycle and Clean Up Australia.

Launching the initiative at the Ryde Hawks baseball club last week, Federal Environment Minister Sussan Ley said the Greening the Green program will also help highlight the benefits a circular economy can bring to the local community.

At the launch, PepsiCo also announced it will move to 100 percent recyclable packaging to enable cardboard and plastic trays to be recycled through kerbside collections and soft plastic packaging to go direct to REDcycle collection bins.