Not much, it would seem. In Australia, we have so far relied on voluntary commitments from industry to tackle the plastic waste challenge created by packaging. The Australian Packaging Covenant Organisation (APCO) is charged with meeting Federal Government targets, including that an average of 50 per cent recycled content is to be used in all packaging by 2025. In 2018/19 HDPE containers averaged only 2% recycled content. The industry chose to focus on the easy solution, increasing the use of recycled paper and cardboard, allowing them to meet the target while ignoring the more complex plastics issue. These actions have made it impossible to reach the government’s second target: for 70% of plastic packaging to be recycled or composted by 2025, in fact, we will be lucky to reach 20%!
APCO claims, “while progress has been made, significant gaps remain—particularly in plastic packaging recovery.” Yeah, right!
A strategic review was implemented following a request from the government: “In December 2023, Minister Plibersek wrote to APCO, on behalf of all Environment Ministers, to express Ministers’ disappointment at the lack of progress towards the Targets, and Ministers’ expectation that industry act on the findings of the review.
As would be expected, consumers are blamed for this failure, with 2 out of the 3 strategies put forward to address this issue targeted at them:
2.1 Consumers understand how and are encouraged to recycle packaging correctly
2.2 Consumers understand how and are encouraged to reduce and reuse packaging and avoid littering
2.3 Supply chain participants understand their business case for reuse and recovery of business-to-business packaging
APCO did then commence consultation with members to gauge reaction to introducing Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) schemes for packaging. But, surprise, surprise, members did not like the sound of that, and so it has been dumped for now.
So we are still aiming for the same targets with no real change in strategy, and there are, apparently, no repercussions for industry.
What we need isn’t another letter from the Minister – we need legislation. to ban single-use products, eliminate unnecessary packaging and mandate the use of recycled plastics or bio-based materials not only in packaging but across industry sectors. For example, the EU has regulated to reduce packaging and promote recycling, by, for example, requiring 25% of plastic used to build vehicles to come from recycling.
- Restrictions on certain single-use plastics, such as pre-packed fruit and veg weighing less than 1.5 kg and individual portions of condiments, sauces, and sugar in hotels, bars and restaurants.
- Minimising the weight and volume of packaging and avoiding unnecessary packaging.
- 2030 and 2040 targets for a minimum percentage of recycled content in packaging.
- A requirement for take-away businesses to offer customers the option to bring their own containers at no extra cost.
- Minimising substances of concern, including restrictions on packaging containing per- and polyfluorinated alkyl substances (PFAS) if they exceed certain thresholds.
These are the kind of actions our government should be taking. We tried voluntary industry agreements and they failed to reach 2025 targets, so why do we think they will meet the same targets by 2030?