Josh Wilson (Fremantle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) notes:

(a) the Australian community is justifiably dismayed at the collapse of REDcycle's return-to-store soft plastics recovery program, with reports that over 12,400 tonnes of plastics were found in warehouses in New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia, a quantity of which has degraded to an extent that it is not suitable for reprocessing and will end up in landfill;

(b) a statement made by the former Government Minister for the Environment in 2020, who said Australians want to be 'confident that when they put things in their recycling bin, or deliver them to a collection centre, they will be repurposed effectively, and not dumped in landfill or simply sent overseas';

(c) the Australian community's concern about the significant harm caused by plastics pollution to marine life, including by the proliferation of microplastics;

(d) that only 16 per cent of plastic packaging was recycled or composted in Australia in 2019-20 whereas the 2018 National Packaging Target is for 70 per cent of plastic packaging to be recycled or composted by 2025; and

(e) that plastic packaging only contains 3 per cent recycled content, whereas the National Packaging Target is for plastics to contain 20 per cent average recycled content by 2025; and

(2) acknowledges the Government's commitment to addressing the woeful state of plastic recycling through:

(a) an agreement with state and territory environment ministers to reform the regulation of plastic packaging by 2025;

(b) the provision of $60 million in the October 2022 budget for state-of-the-art advanced recycling solutions for hard-to-recycle plastics, as part of the $250 million Recycling Modernisation Fund;

(c) the creation of the Soft Plastics Taskforce which is now taking steps to reinstate plastics collection systems;

(d) the establishment of a national taskforce on the circular economy to reduce waste and pollution, improve product design, and transition to a more circular economy; and

(e) timely membership of the High Ambition Coalition for an international treaty to end plastic pollution by 2040 and signing the New Plastics Economy Global Commitment.

The world has a very serious plastic problem. We make and consume too much of it, especially in the form of flimsy disposable crap that is unnecessary and ends up causing serious harm to the environment. Two weeks ago the ABC ran a story as follows:

A previously unknown disease in seabirds caused by the ingestion of plastic has been found on Lord Howe Island by scientists from the United Kingdom and Australia.

Named plasticosis, the newly classified disease is caused by plastic that repeatedly injures soft tissue and leads to the formation of extensive scar tissue in a bird's stomach.

One of the researchers, Ms Charlton-Howard, noted that there are over a thousand marine species known to ingest plastic. How awful is that?

Everyday Australians have shown again and again their dismay in relation to plastic waste and their preparedness to support the change that is required. It is not principally individuals and households that need to fix this problem; it is companies and it is government. Unfortunately, we haven't made great progress on that front. In aggregate terms, our consumption of plastic hasn't greatly reduced and our recycling and reuse of plastic hasn't greatly improved. Yes, we have made some welcome progress in relation to single-use plastic, and we should celebrate that. We should remember that when people claim it's impossible to shift away from this or that form of plastic, the same thing was said about eliminating plastic cutlery, straws, cups and so on. But in terms of the big picture, there hasn't been much change,.

The REDcycle debacle is a reminder of how we need to be absolutely rigorous in demanding that change occur, that we measure it, and that we hold those responsible to account. I don't understand how that scheme ran for years without anyone knowing that the collection of soft plastics for recycling was not resulting in any actual recycling. The Woolworths 2022 sustainability report says:

In F22 REDcycle recycled 4,608 tonnes of plastic through Woolworths Supermarkets across Australia, a 58% growth on previous year.

The Coles 2022 sustainability report says:

Since the REDcycle program began, more than 2.4 billion pieces (9,675 tonnes) of flexible plastic have been returned to our supermarkets across Australia. The soft plastic is converted into a range of products including playground furniture, supermarket trolleys, fence posts and as a base for roads.

But in reality, since 2018 more than 12,000 tonnes of soft plastic has been stockpiled. It hadn't been converted into anything other than warehouses full of plastic that presented a fire risk.

The former coalition government lauded the REDcycle program at every opportunity, including at their much vaunted Plastics Summit in 2020. Like so many of their supported initiatives, there wasn't much substance; just lots of packaging. As far as I'm concerned, there are still serious questions to answer in relation to how the supermarkets and the former government remained in the dark about what can only be described as an abject failure. Australians diligently collected and dropped off their soft plastics and they were told it was being recycled. At the same time, the coalition spent millions of taxpayer dollars running ads to that effect. But in reality, for years the REDcycle arrangement was a charade.

The environment minister, the member for Sydney, has been resolute about these matters and about the scale of the challenge. Under the minister's leadership, this government has allocated $60 million to tackle hard-to-recycle materials like soft plastic, and we have established a national task force on the circular economy. The minister has rightly said that in the face of failed voluntary schemes with respect to product stewardship, there will come a time when co-regulatory or mandatory schemes with proper reporting and compliance will need to be applied.

We've seen the Australian Packaging Covenant drift along without delivering any meaningful change in key areas like the use of recycled plastic and new packaging. The 2025 APCO target is to achieve a relatively modest 20 per cent of recycled plastic in new packaging by that date. Yet the current level has been stuck at two to three per cent for years. One of the many reports the previous government kept stonily silent about was the consultant review at the end of 2021 that made it patently clear that the APCO targets were badly off track and would not be met.

We want to make serious progress towards a circular economy, which we must achieve if we want to stop the scourge of ocean plastic and ensure our sustainable use of limited resources. To do this we need effective market design, effective regulation and serious corporate social responsibility. Australia has been crystal clear about what they expect and they've shown and keep showing their preparedness to take action and make choices in the name of avoiding waste, stopping environmental damage like plasticosis and building a sustainable, resilient circular economy. The Albanese Labor government is not going to shirk our responsibly on that front.

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