Recycling Challenges

The key challenges to recycling any disposable foodservice product (e.g. plastic, paperboard, other) include:

• High degree of food and beverage contamination;
• Significant expense to collect and transport these materials; and
• Low value of finished recycled materials.

It is important to point out that no disposable foodservice products (e.g. plastic, paperboard, other) are currently recycled in a significant way owing to the same issues.

Specifically, in the case of paperboard foodservice disposables, they are technically very difficult to recycle,

and thus, are not recycled because of the multi-material composition (a mixture of paper and a plastic or wax coating) of the product. Considering the compostability of these products, because most paper foodservice products are coated with polyethylene plastic, wax, or other non-biodegradable materials, they are essentially no more degradable than foam polystyrene products.


Auditing Recycling Claims

Increasingly, Australians are considering the environmental impacts of their purchasing decisions. Many businesses are making claims about the environmental credentials of their products in order to differentiate them from competitor's products. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) oversees the legality of any self-declared environmental claims and has the power to prosecute companies making inaccurate, unwarranted or misleading (including vague or nonspecific) claims.

In Australia, the standard that addresses claims that businesses can make about the environmental credentials of their products is AS.NZS ISO 14021:2000 Environmental labels and declarations – Self-declared environmental claims (Type II environmental labeling). This standard particularly notes that vague or nonspecific environmental claims (e.g. environmentally friendly, green, nature's friend, etc.) should not be used.

Under this standard, a claim that a product is recyclable needs to meet three tests:

1. the collection, sorting and delivery systems to transfer materials from the source to the recycling facility are conveniently available to a reasonable proportion of the purchasers, potential purchasers and users of the product;
2. the recycling facilities are available to accommodate the product; and
3. the product for which the claim is being made is being collected and recycled.

If you see a claim made and these conditions are not satisfied, it is possibly illegal and should be referred to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.

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