Environment group Boomerang Alliance, has called for quick action on solving the nation’s packaging waste crisis, especially for soft plastics, during the start of a series of meetings with MPs in Canberra.
“The Commonwealth Packaging Regulatory Reform discussion paper sets out future options for single-use and problematic packaging, but the government only proposes to have new regulations in place in some years’ time,” said Toby Hutcheon, campaign manager for Boomerang Alliance, a coalition of 55 NGOs.
“Given that over the last 25 years of co-regulatory (voluntary) product stewardship for the packaging industry has failed to deliver on promises and targets, action is urgent. Regulation of soft plastics should specifically be on the fast track.
“More failure would be intolerable. Already, while 84 per cent of packaging (plastic, cardboard, metal) is recyclable, less than 20 per cent of plastic packaging is actually recycled.
“For the 2025 target of 20 per cent of plastic packaging containing recycled content, only six per cent currently does. There are no targets for plastic reductions or for reusable packaging.”
The Boomerang Alliance is supporting the mandatory EPR (Product Stewardship) model in the options paper, which requires all packaging producers to be legally responsible for the packaging they place into the market and must include mandatory targets on reduction, reuse, recycling and recycled content of all packaging.
According to the Alliance, mandatory product stewardship is an approach taken in Europe but is largely ignored in Australia.
“Soft plastic recycling collections in particular need to be fixed, and we are proposing the establishment of an industry-funded stewardship scheme for soft plastics to be introduced on a fast timeframe,’’ Hutcheon concluded.
Addressing the immediate problem of soft plastics
Given the extended timeframe (after 2026) before any significant improvement, and the ongoing problem with soft plastics, Boomerang is proposing that a Product Stewardship Scheme for Soft Plastics be fast-tracked now.
(Ed's note: PKN last week reported that a new organisation for soft plastics has been founded: the Soft Plastics Stewardship Association, formed to coordinate the efforts to date of the AFGC's National Plastics Recycling Scheme and the Soft Plastic taskforce run by the supermarkets Coles, Woolworths and Aldi. It is currently headed up by interim CEO Barry Cosier. )
This producer-funded scheme would be responsible for reducing excessive and unnecessary soft plastics and establishing kerbside and in-store soft plastics collections, with recovery infrastructure. It could also be integrated into a broader regulated packaging regime later.
Boomerang is also calling on supermarkets to accept their customers backlog of soft plastics back for recycling, considering thousands of households have been storing their soft plastics since the collapse of the REDcycle collection service, while awaiting a new recycling service.
Boomerang says this return-to-store collection should take place as soon as practical, with plastics sent for recycling.
Product Stewardship: a circular economy approach
Under an EPR (or product stewardship regulation), packaging producers would be required to meet mandatory targets and cover the associated costs of the collection and recovery of their products.
Most of these costs (kerbside and public place collection, resource recovery, landfilling, stormwater traps and litter clean ups) are currently borne by households (councils) and other businesses-whether they are consumers or not.
As the container refund schemes for cans and bottles has shown, making industry responsible for the collection and recovery of discarded products can slash waste and litter rates and significantly improve recovery and recycling.
Under the Boomerang Alliance model:
- National mandatory targets for reduction, reuse, recycling and recycled content will be set.
- Producers will bear full responsibility for their products through their entire lifecycle and must meet set targets.
- Collection services and recovery infrastructure will be funded by producers.
- Standards for reusable, compostable or recyclable packaging will include requirements that these items are recovered in practice and at scale.
- A circular economy system for packaging will be established, with a continuous improvement framework and a goal to eliminate packaging waste.
The Commonwealth Packaging Reform Regulations proposes three potential options to solve packaging problems:
- A continuation of the current (co-regulatory) voluntary arrangements (albeit with strengthened arrangements).
- Mandated requirements that include bans on identified problem packaging and to improve recycling.
- An extended producer (product stewardship) model where producers bear responsibility for their packaging throughout their whole lifecycle.
