Unsustainable waste management: the power of social enterprise in changing the narrative
Authors: Samuel Roussos (Project Leader, Swap Cup) & Oliver Bateman (Publications Director, Swap Cup)
This article is exactly 1303 words. Relying upon the assumption it will be read at the average global speed of 210 words per minute, it will be completed in no longer than seven minutes; less than the average game time of a round of Jenga (seven minutes and twenty-four seconds). Similar to the beloved 1983 game, the world too is edging towards a clamorous collapse; however, this time it’s not merely a tower of wooden blocks, but rather the decimation of Australia’s entire waste management system. Upon your completion of this piece, 10 000 disposable cups would have been thrown away by Australians, which contrary to popular belief, will not be recycled. A thin layer of polyethylene composing less than five percent of the entire cup will mean they inevitably contribute to the one billion coffee cups Australians exile to landfill each year.
We are Swap Cup, a student led social enterprise with students hailing from the University of Melbourne and Griffith University. We have declared war on single-use coffee cups, and it is our vision to see the world free from this pernicious adversary; but this plastic pandemic we are facing goes far beyond unsustainable coffee habits.
Recycling Goes in the Yellow Bin… Right?
Australians love to recycle, and it is this which has driven us to achieve a well-respected 60% recycling rate across the nation. However, what results in the failure of our waste management system is what can and cannot be recycled, and what is subsequently placed into the wrong waste system. Take your morning latte for example. You are not mistaken to believe the paper and lid can be recycled; they can. However, recycling facilities cannot manage the polyethylene lining the cup; placing it with other recyclable materials has the unfortunate consequence of contamination, which results in all the contents of the bin being sent to landfill given the extreme cost of extraction of the plastic. Our confusion on exactly what items can go into which bin means many items are ending up in the wrong system; especially disposable coffee cups, long-life milk cartons and ‘soft plastics’. These cartons and plastics can be recycled at certain locations, but this simply adds to the confusion; why should I be able to take them to a recycling depot but not place them in my usual yellow bin? This confusion has given rise to a recycling crisis for municipalities across Australia, perpetuating and complicating our single-use obsession.
Our current modes of production focus on single-use, with the majority of goods purchased following a linear model. A coffee cup begins its life as oil for the plastic, and trees for the paperboard. These raw materials undergo extensive processing to produce the cup itself, which is inevitably thrown away after your morning latte. Once in landfill where it will spend the remainder of its life, each cup will release methane into the atmosphere which is 21 times more potent than carbon dioxide, further accelerating global warming. This linear model places emphasis on the extraction and exploitation of resources, and provides limited value on the end product. This resource obsession leads to an over extraction of resources, pushing us further into an unsustainable mode of production.
At the end of the linear model is the waste collection system where currently few councils have transparent waste management plans. A common narrative among waste management facilities around the nation is the banishment of perfectly recyclable materials to landfill. Albeit the inherent harms of burying it in the ground, a failure to recycle material leads to an even more complex extraction process when that resource becomes sought after. For example, metals such as copper being stored in waste deposits from the failure to recycle electronics, means more resources are expended, and the environment harmed, when it is mined from the ground in order to craft the latest iPhone. A key theme from research in this area is that we live in “yesterday’s cities”, meaning all infrastructure, services and markets we utilise today arise from the decision-making that has occurred in the past.
Plastic Recycling: The Corporate Myth
Thus far, this article has focused on the individual’s responsibility to recycle properly, and how they are at ‘fault’ if they choose to purchase a single use item. To gain a more holistic understanding, our focus now shifts to the systems that have resulted in this social challenge. Since the introduction of plastics in the 1950s, the oil industry has researched the viability of plastic recycling from a consumer standpoint. Research conducted by the National Public Radio, a publicly owned non-profit in the USA, found that the majority of US oil and plastics companies in the USA won’t engage in plastics recycling because ‘it doesn’t make economic sense’. Moreover, the triangular arrow symbol with a number in the middle that appears on most plastics - what most would call the ‘recycling symbol’ - was a lobbied placement by firms to create the illusion of the wider recyclability of plastics. Importantly, this symbol refers to a broader system of classification, not recyclability; simply because the packaging has this symbol does not mean it can be recycled. This symbol has been adopted as a form of greenwashing, and a way to counteract systemic change which would remove our economic need for oil dependency.
Many have attempted to argue compostable cups can be our saving grace, however similar to disposable cups, they require substantial infrastructure to be recycled properly; infrastructure which Australia does not possess nor is currently willing to invest in. Keep cups appear to then be the logical antidote, however the burden of remembering to present your barista with a clean cup each morning is enough to result in their exile to the forgotten depths of your kitchen cupboard (I think we are all guilty of this). This is nothing to shame individuals for, but is rather evocative of the simple behavioural economic fact that consumers require a solution that is clean and convenient.
Swap Cup: A Clean and Convenient Solution
Swap Cup eradicates the need for individuals to carry their own reusable cup, and rather supplements it with a circular flow. Consumers download our app, find their local Swap Cup partnered café, and scan a QR code at the counter when ordering their coffee to be given it in our very own keep cup, a Swap Cup. Upon completion of the drink, they can return it at any Swap Cup café, or simply swap it for a clean one next time; dirty cups are cleaned by cafes in their non-peak hours. Initially, for the minor fee of three dollars per month, customers were given unlimited access to our ever-growing network of cafes in both Victoria, Queensland and from January 2021, the Northern Territory. However, the fundamental issue social enterprises face in combating environmental issues is a barrier to entry; sustainable products can often be esoteric and ostracise lower income earners. As a result, in 2021 Swap Cup will become entirely free for consumers to use, demolishing the barrier to sustainability completely, and subsequently allowing all coffee drinkers to actively engage in environmentally friendly habits.
Above our primary objective of providing an alternative to disposable cups, Swap Cup strives to act as an educational platform, raising awareness around issues such as sustainability, endeavouring to combat and change the current narrative. The fallacy is that sustainability requires monumental change; but slight alterations to our daily habits can have tremendous positive outcomes when performed as a collective.
With the world seemingly altering its stance on recycling, and nations such as China turning away Australia’s waste under its “National Sword” policy, it is now our responsibility to invest in infrastructure and projects that allow us to properly manage our unhealthy relationship with plastic. The next time you are enjoying your morning latte as you attempt to beat the morning rush, put a piece back into the Jenga stack, and don’t throw it, swap it!