How much plastic?

Paris delivered on their aggressive goals to reduce plastic use, reuse plastics in seats and other parts of the games ecosphere, and to hit their carbon emissions targets. Paris reduced single use plastics by 52% by weight when compared with London 2012, and built on London’s legacy of compostable and recyclable food packaging. Nevertheless this still meant some 12,500 T of waste was generated during the Games themselves.

As the world prepares for the adoption of a new ambitious plastics treaty, which seeks to addresses the full life cycle of plastic, including its production, design and disposal, through an international legally binding instrument, the bar is raising for us here in Australia.

The opportunity for Brisbane for 2032 is how we will build an circular ecosystem around the packaging and containers needed for the Olympics. How will we reduce the amount of packaging that people want during the Games? How will we produce enough compostable containers? How will we encourage reuse of cups and plates and lunch boxes during our Games, and what opportunities are there for us to bring leading Australian innovation to bear in the face of these challenges?

The question for now is ‘how good could we be'?’