Ocean Plastic Report Released

28 May 2024

Drowning in Waste: Plastic Pollution in Australia’s Oceans and Waterways” by the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Climate Change, Energy, Environment, and Water, May 2024

Background

In October 2022, an inquiry into marine plastic pollution began with the AFGC making a submission calling on a harmonised and sensible approach to tackling plastic in Australia’s oceans. The final report for the inquiry was published on 28 May 2024. It contains 22 recommendations to address plastic pollution in oceans. Overall, the report undoubtedly calls for more action on plastic pollution.

Key recommendations impacting food and grocery manufacturers include the following:

• Improve the effectiveness and update the National Plastics Plan through stakeholder consultation, creating sustainable end markets through incentives and recycled content targets, and mandating some of the National Packaging Targets 2025.
• Develop a national approach to reducing plastic pollution including harmonisation of single-use bans, waste collection standards and container deposit schemes.
• Simplify and standardise plastic packaging labelling to reduce consumer confusion.
• Consider policies that track and limit plastic production within Australia to reduce the variety of plastics and enable the visibility of imported plastic compositions.
• Establish stronger Extended Producer Responsibility schemes and investigate a levy on virgin plastic.

AFGC Action

Several recommendations made by the AFGC into the inquiry were included, most notably the call for a harmonised approach, including single-use bans, waste collection standards, and container deposit schemes.

It is unclear to what extent the government will act on all 22 recommendations in the report. Still, it is important to note that many of the recommendations are being investigated as part of the Australian Government’s packaging regulation reform, in which the AFGC is actively participating in.

The AFGC will continue to work with the federal, state and territory governments on packaging reform and will provide updates when more information is available.

CONTACT

For more information contact Sarah Collier, Associate Director, Sustainability at sarah.collier@afgc.org.au.