Two audits of a city's waste habits, held a year apart, have produced a mixed report card on whether a single-use plastic ban and shifting attitudes have effected real change.
On Saturday, a truckload of waste from Darwin's popular Parap market was set aside for more than a dozen volunteers to meticulously sort and count its contents.
With the aim quantifying single-use waste destined for landfill, it was the city's second waste audit and the first since City of Darwin announced it would incrementally ban single-use plastics from its raft of popular weekend markets.
Some stalls have since committed to using biodegradable plastics while the council and environmental groups double down on bring-your-own-container messages.
Shar Molloy, the director of Environment Centre NT, told ABC Radio Darwin's Joel Spry before the count that they wanted to see less rubbish overall.
"The top of the waste hierarchy is to avoid waste. That's the best thing."
But the audit revealed a slow change in consumer behaviour, a lag in some stallholders adopting the plastic ban, and also some surprises.
Takeaway cups
When it came to smoothie and coffee cups, organisers found the number of dumped cups had decreased by about 12 per cent.
They said it was a promising sign, albeit one that could be related to a number of other variables such as market attendance.
More concerning for Waste Free NT co-founder Sylvia Streichhan was that only a slim margin of that waste was biodegradable.
"We are only using 4 per cent of biodegradable materials now, and that is after the plastics ban has come into place," she said.
Food containers
Food containers turned up the opposite result, with more going into bins but a lot more being compostable.
"A third of these are now made of biodegradable material," Ms Streichhan said.
"That's really good news.
"It still means there are roughly 900 containers that are made from normal plastic, which is not good, but there is certainly a shift towards more biodegradable containers."
A related issue is that City of Darwin does not yet have a commercial composting facility, meaning the city is without the amenities to properly break down biodegradable waste.
Until then, even environmentally friendly plastics will make their way to landfill.
Straws
Straws registered the largest area of change, partly due to numerous anti-plastic straw campaigns, Ms Streichhan said.
"We saw that around 77 per cent are now biodegradable, so that's a great effort for stallholders."
Wildcard items
Also on display in the audit was the stranger side of people's public waste habits.
Dumped umbrellas alongside bags of discarded clothes were hauled from the waste pile.
"We actually had op shop clothes, like a whole bag of what seemed like op shop clothes, that someone just discarded," Ms Streichhan said.
That there was less food waste in the rubbish was welcome news to volunteers.
"We did actually notice a 17 per cent decrease in food waste, which was very, very good," Ms Streichhan said.
"Food waste that ends up in landfill also creates a lot of methane gas, so that contributes to our greenhouse gas emissions."
| Item | 2018 | 2019 |
| Cups | 1,176 | 1,054 |
| Straws | 987 | 941 |
| Cutlery | 1,669 | 1,622 |
| Containers | 1,100 | 1,514 |
| Food waste | 608kg | 520kg |
What's the take away?
The overall report card, according to organisers, showed slow progress.
"We've definitely seen a shift in people's perceptions, and people are becoming a lot more aware," Ms Streichhan said.
"But we would've hoped for more people just bringing their own containers by now.
"I think it can be easy to forget, as a single person, you go to the markets, you grab one smoothie.
"You forget that there are thousands of people that are exactly like you if you go as well.
"And so, for us, it's just showing the quantity that's actually produced."
