The Boomerang Alliance has called for the establishment of an Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) scheme for packaging as part of the Commonwealth Packaging Reforms. The organisation, which comprises 55 NGOs, emphasised that the scheme must include mandatory targets for reducing, reusing, composting, and recycling packaging.
Toby Hutcheon, national campaign manager of the Boomerang Alliance, stated, “Any EPR or product stewardship scheme must also be designed to raise fees that are sufficient to cover the full cost of recovery.” He noted that making producers accountable for costs is essential to creating a genuine circular economy that can effectively eliminate waste and litter.
The Boomerang Alliance is also advocating for immediate action on soft plastics, highlighting that nearly none of the estimated 155,000 tonnes sold to households are currently recycled.
“Soft plastic recycling collections and reprocessing in the circular economy needs to be fixed,” Hutcheon said. “We are proposing the establishment of an industry-funded scheme before 2026. We oppose any go-slow moves by the government. The public wants this problem solved.”
Hutcheon added that many supermarket customers are currently storing their soft plastics, awaiting new collection services. The Alliance is also urging supermarkets to implement Return-To-Store days to facilitate the immediate recycling of these plastics.
Under the Boomerang Alliance's proposed model, producers would be fully responsible for their products throughout their lifecycle, with specific targets set for packaging: a 20 per cent reduction by 2030, a 30 per cent reuse rate by 2030, a 70 per cent composting and recycling target by 2026, and a focus on achieving 50 per cent recycled content from domestic sources by 2026. Additionally, the Alliance calls for packaging standards to ensure that reusable, compostable, or recyclable items are effectively recovered at scale.
