Plastic Whirlwind

Cryptic Moth spent the weekend getting scenic shots of Sydney harbour, which included a ferry ride to Manly. Even in the winter, the Manly beach proved to be a hot destination for surfing and other beach activities.

Thanks to Jon Dee from Planet Ark – an Australian eco-org with a strong web presence – we spent Monday morning getting great broll of a PET bottling plant that can churn out more than 5 million bottles a day.



Visy Pak is Australia’s largest packaging company, handling both Coke and Pepsi products to name a few. It’s also the largest recycler. In fact, these bottles are made with recycled PET – about 15% of the raw material.



Bill, the manufacturing manager, explained how Visy takes waste plastic from all over Australia then sort it, clean it, grind it and re-pelletize it for injection and blow-molding. They also re-use any waste plastic from the manufacturing process. It was quite an operation and Visy hopes to increase the percentage of recycled materials in their products.

We then had to rush off to meet Ian Keirnan – founder of Clean-Up Australia (www.cleanup.com.au) and apparently one of Australia’s most trusted people.



The ex-contractor witnessed the amount of litter in the ocean while competing in a round-the-world yacht race in 1987 and wanted to make a difference. He started with the Sydney harbour and now he’s tackling the world (wwwcleanuptheworld.org). Ian stoutly defended having MacDonald’s as a sponsor and eloquently spoke of the connectivity of all our impacts – from litter to climate change. He is clearly an environmental leader.



On Tuesday, Cryptic Moth met Jon Dee face-to-face in a suburban mall. We were there to film the success of Planet Ark’s “Just Say No To Plastic Bags” campaign.



Companies like Ikea and this supermarket chain are offering alternatives or banning the bags altogether. In this store, consumers have 4 choices: buy a new plastic bag, buy a bioplastic bag, buy a Green Bag made of sturdier plastic that feels like canvas, or don’t use a bag at all. The plastic/cloth bag seems to be the big winner among local shoppers. Stores are now handing out 90% less plastic bags.



Jon was more than happy to play along to the camera and Cryptic Moth will be following up on other Planet Ark initiatives like ink-jet cartridge recycling and biodegradable diapers.

Then it was off to interview Dr. Veena, Director of Sustainable Materials Processing Research in the School of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of New South Wales. She has been exploring the feasibility of using waste plastic as a carbon source for manufacturing steel.



Veena spoke passionately about how she hates wasting stuff and why this could easily replace coal. And because of the high temperatures required to smelt steel (unlike incinerators), all of the dangerous chemicals like dioxins would be destroyed at the molecular level.

But just when we thought we had shot our last interview of the trip, we discovered our blog had caught the attention of a bioplastic importer living in Sydney. His name was Richard and remarkably agreed to meet that night for an interview. Cryptic Moth quickly raced out for food and to scout a location. Within an hour we were setting up lights outside a pub and I was directing Richard to “act like a…salesman” as he pulled different bio-samples from his pockets.



Richard is part of a growing group of ex-petroleum entrepreneurs who see exploding markets in plant-based polymers – one’s that are 100% biodegradable. We wish him luck.

Five shoots in three days was a great way to finish Cryptic Moth’s first overseas trip. At least we’ll sleep on the 20+ hour plane ride home.



Thanks again to all of our guests for sharing your time, insight and enthusiasm. You are the inspiration for this project.

Out.

G+I