Australian Marine Conservation Society calls for enforceable plastics laws after business fails to deliver

The Australian Marine Conservation Society says Australia needs new laws on plastic packaging as businesses continue failing to deliver with it recently being revealed that we recycle less than 20% of the plastic packaging we use.

Australia had set a national target to recover 70% of the plastic packaging by 2025, but a review by the Australian Packaging Covenant Organisation shows that just 18% of plastic packaging was recycled or composted in the 2020-21 financial year. The review released today projects that plastic recycling rates are unlikely to exceed 46% by 2025 despite the $250 million the federal government has invested in recycling.

This revelation from AMCS comes at a time when the NSW Environment Protection Authority (EPA) has maintained its position that Australia’s major retailers, Coles and Woolworths, will not receive more time to move high-risk soft plastic stockpiles.

The EPA has requested that Coles and Woolworths must move stockpiles of soft plastics from eight high-risk sites by 12th May 2023 as per the deadline in the original notices.

The retailers have been granted an extension for the removal of stockpiles at seven sites classified as “low-medium” risk.

Coles and Woolworths have had ten weeks to eliminate the potential fire and pollution risk posed by the stockpiling of about 5200 tonnes of soft plastic after being served final Clean-up Notices. This decision strikes the right balance between reducing risk and being practical to fix the problem.

The retailers must also work on developing a lawful solution for the materials.

The review by the Australian Packaging Covenant Organisation highlights insufficient action by business and a lack of enforcement as key barriers to progress. It found that only 48% of rigid plastic packaging has good recyclability. Recycled content also remained low, with just 1% of flexible plastic packaging made from recycled content, while 11% of rigid PET and 3% of rigid HDPE and PP was made from recycled content.

AMCS Plastics Campaign Manager Shane Cucow notes “It’s clear as day that new plastics laws are needed to make these targets enforceable. Asking nicely has failed to get business to reduce their plastic packaging, and our turtles and seabirds are paying the price.

“Current projections indicate the plastic in our oceans will triple in the next 20 years unless we urgently reduce plastic consumption. Plastic production is outpacing our recycling capacity despite the Australian Government investing a quarter of a billion dollars in recycling.

“As long as there is no penalty for using unrecyclable and unsustainable packaging, sustainability conscious businesses will continue to be undermined by brands that choose to keep using plastic.

“We have good and ambitious targets to reduce plastic but they will continue to fail until they are mandatory and enforceable.

“Federal environment minister Tanya Plibersek has said that the government will regulate if business doesn’t act. It’s clear that time has arrived.

“We have the solutions. Australia should follow the lead of European nations which have taxed the use of virgin plastics and plastic packaging, levelling the playing field and making it economically desirable to use recycled content. After all, what’s the point of a recycling bin if nobody is buying recycled plastic?

“The failure of REDCycle has shown that we need to stop using unrecyclable plastics and provide effective incentives for businesses to purchase recycled content.”

Image. Credit: WWF