War on Waste is back!
June 21, 2018
Ryan Collins
ABC’s War on Waste, the landmark series that sparked action across the country to cut Australia’s staggering waste levels, is returning to TV. In 2017 the program reached 4.3 million viewers across Australia and broke records on social media. Host Craig Reucassel will be tackling new targets when the series returns on Tuesday 24 July including plastic water bottles and straws, e-waste, furniture waste as well as going deeper on previous topics like food waste and the recycling crisis.
David Anderson, ABC Director of Entertainment & Specialist, said: “War on Waste highlights the ABC’s unrivalled capacity to spark national conversations and drive community action and social change that impacts the daily lives of Australians. The distinctively ABC series empowers people to take immediate steps to reduce their consumption of plastic and electronic goods, and wastage of coffee cups and food. Waste is a universal issue, it impacts everyone.”
The AACTA winning and Logie-nominated series, which also won the prestigious Gold Banksia Sustainability award, revealed that size shouldn’t matter when it comes to buying bananas, encouraged viewers to BYO coffee cups, confronted politicians with a giant ball of plastic bags, challenged state parliaments to ban single-use plastic bags and revealed why fast fashion is not fashionable at all.
The series showed Australians how they can take steps to reduce waste in their daily lives and encouraged big business and politicians to rethink the waste issue, with some inspiring outcomes.
- Responsible Cafes, which promotes reusable coffee cups, went from having 420 cafes on board to having 1050 the week following broadcast up almost overnight (that number is now over 3600);
- The Keep Cup company website crashed and sales rose 400% after the series highlighted issues around disposable coffee cups;
- Woolworths and Coles (both in the series) announced lightweight plastic bag bans;
- Following the War on Waste, Foodbank had waiting lists for volunteering, to the point that NSW, Victoria and WA were fully booked through to the end of the year.
- Planet Ark’s RecyclingNearYou website had a big jump in usage as website views increased by 65% compared to the same period the previous year. The products with the most searches for recycling solutions were plastic bags, followed by printer cartridges and clothing.
But the war is far from over…
Taking Action in the War on Waste
- Find solutions! Check RecyclingNearYou for recycling options in your area.
- Recycle right! Look out for the Australasian Recycling Label on packaging.
- Watch the ABC’s War on Waste when it returns Tuesday 24 July at 8.30pm.
Sources
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Positive Environment News has been compiled using publicly available information. Planet Ark does not take responsibility for the accuracy of the original information and encourages readers to check the references before using this information for their own purposes.
Ryan Collins
Ryan is the Recycling Programs Manager at Planet Ark. After nearly a decade working in the banking and finance industry Ryan was drawn to a career in environmental conservation that saw him work in Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Fiji. With a background in psychology and environmental management, Ryan’s role at Planet Ark since 2012 has been focused on developing engaging and positive environmental behaviour change programs to help everyone recycle and reduce waste.
