Joanne Howarth is on a mission to introduce a sustainable alternative with packs made from wool at her humble warehouse in Sydney’s western suburbs.
Howarth could understand the customers’ frustrations; she was dealing with similar clutter problems at the meal-kit warehouse.
The wool industry isn’t devoid of its own environmental issues, but so far, Howarth has found an enthusiastic audience for her “Woolpack” product; more than 300 customers have signed up, including some big names like supplements’ producer Blackmores. Rather than source the merino wool that Australia is famous for, Planet Protector uses wool from sheep breeds such as Dorpers and Awassi, which were bred to withstand extremes of temperature.
“It has always been my mission to bring that home. You know, we’re a wool country,” she says. “I thought ‘I need to lobby the government’.” “So when you factor in those things, and two, a big one that a lot of people don’t know about, is polystyrene is highly flammable, it’s deemed a dangerous good. So, when businesses are paying their insurance, the insurance is loaded by as much as 45 per cent.
This year the bans will spread to the sort of polystyrene cups and “clam-shell” containers used to package fast food in decades gone by.Foamex general manager Justin Kelsey says manufacturers will find it increasingly difficult to produce the polystyrene products that can’t easily be substituted, such as those for the construction industry, if product lines such as cups are banned.
Kelsey says the polystyrene industry’s environmental impact could be reduced dramatically if consumers and governments join with manufacturers and get serious about recycling. “I understand that they’re big employers, they pay lots of taxes, they generate jobs, like all of those things, and you know, it’s not like you can wipe out a whole industry overnight,” she says.
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