Wednesday 7 August 2019

Going Green in Australia.


They call these Bin Chickens, they scavenge through the bins in Sydney. The Australian White Ibis.

Living overseas and travelling regularly to new places, I'm always interested in how things work in different countries.

There are quite a lot of similarities in Australia with the UK and Dubai and a lot of differences also.

In the UK and Australia you pay for plastic bags, in Dubai, they just bag everything up for you.

McDonalds in the UK have banned plastic straws, they're freely available in Dubai and Australia.

Most coffee shops here offer a 50c discount if you bring your own take away cup, this doesn't happen in Dubai and I think nearly every coffee shop offers a discount in the UK. A couple of coffee shops in Australia have signs stating the cup must been clean for them to fill it and in one place there was a charge of $2 to wash your cup.

I've noticed a few places offering recyclable cutlery and most places the tap water is not for drinking, so there are water fountains available to refill drinks bottles. We can't work out if the signs were to say you need a minimum of 1 litre per person for the hike or only refill 1 litre of water.



However despite drinking water being freely available and visible signs encouraging you to recycle, there were a lot of people walking around with shop bought bottles of water. In Australia in a restaurant or cafe, you are given tap water automatically. In the UK you have to ask for tap water, in Dubai they only serve bottled water.

I noticed sun composting bins in Sydney and Melbourne.

There were  bins everywhere from Bondi Beach below

to a light house at Cape Otway

and in every car park we parked in.

And if you can't find a bin, then you're reminded just to take your rubbish home.



4 comments:

  1. Interesting how the same issue is dealt with differently :) - I was puzzled today by going through the airport & eating something in a somewhat wholefood airport outlet: Everything was wrapped in plastic but then they had bamboo cutlery... mhm it's a first step I guess... #goinggreen

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    1. yes, i've noticed lots of bamboo straws, recycled napkins and then everything put in a plastic bag

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  2. It looks like Australia is trying but has LONG way to go - I have UK friends living in Sydney so I'm going to have a chat with them and see what their take is on eco issues Down Under. Thank you for linking up to #GoingGreen - it is always great to get stories from al around our beautiful world.

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