Zali Steggall (Warringah, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I welcome the opportunity to discuss this very important review. I first want to thank the committee, and the secretariat staff, who I know worked very hard to bring it all together. We had a number of public hearings and a significant number of submissions, and we also did a number of in-person visits around the country. It was incredibly instructive to see the submissions by so many in that process.

I would also like to thank some organisations in Warringah that are doing a fantastic job of addressing the problems of plastics and microplastics. Of course, Warringah is a place with many waterways. We have Manly Dam, we have many harbour coves and inlets and then we have beaches. So we can see firsthand the impact that plastics and microplastics have on our water environment and waterways. And, as this report identifies, we are drowning in waste.

I would like to start by thanking some organisations, like AUSMAP, who made submissions and gave evidence to the inquiry but also started one of their programs in Warringah, around East Esplanade in Manly. It's a program where they monitor how much plastic and microplastic they find in that area. It is citizen science. It is volunteer based, and they turn up on a very regular basis to monitor that plastic content. Operation Straw and Pittwater Eco Adventures are doing a phenomenal job, on a very regular basis, of cleaning up some of those harbour beaches. Unfortunately, maybe differently to surf beaches, the harbour beaches accumulate a huge amount of rubbish and plastics that have come off the boats and recreational activities in our harbour.

As this report has identified, plastic is everywhere. It's overrunning our streets, parks, beaches and coastlines. This report, appropriately titled Drowning in waste, lays out quite plainly that we need to take action. Australians consume more single-use plastic per person than any other country in the world, bar Singapore. I know a lot of Australians think that we're doing well. We think we're good global citizens and we think we're quite engaged with recycling and being plastic aware. But this statistic shows we are not doing as well as we think. I repeat: except for Singapore, we consume the most single-use plastic per person. Clearly, we have to do better.

In 2020-21 Australia used 3.79 million tonnes of plastic, of which only 14 per cent was recycled. So we are huge contributors to this problem. Around 130,000 tonnes of plastic leaks into the environment annually, including into our oceans and waterways. There are currently 150 million tonnes of plastic pollution in the ocean. By 2040 global plastic pollution is expected to double, with the ocean's plastic pollution expected to more than quadruple. By 2050 the amount of plastic waste in the environment could increase to 26 billion tonnes if no action is taken. And it gets worse. The breakdown of plastics into microplastics poses further risk to marine life, leads to blockages in digestive systems, malnutrition and death. It really is no surprise that many are so concerned. Plastic pollution is a global crisis, and it's harming our environment, our wildlife and, ultimately, us. There isn't much data yet showing the impact on human life of the ingestion of plastic, but the ingestion is happening.

Key facts, as highlighted in the report, are that we have a massive issue. There's a huge problem that we must act on because we are, quite literally, drowning in plastic. The key recommendation of this report is for the National Plastics Plan to be updated. In particular, the report notes that the plan should:

This is incredibly urgent. Our current National Plastics Plan is a disjointed one, with some goals included in the original plan already achieved prior to the plan's development. It begs the question: what is it really achieving? Stakeholders told our committee that they were lukewarm, at best, about the current plan, and so a new plan must urgently be developed in consultation with state and territory governments, industry and community and be coordinated nationally to prioritise industry accountability.

Most importantly, though, I feel strongly that what we need is for the responsibility around plastics to shift back to manufacturers. The committee found that manufacturers find it cheaper and easier to use virgin polymers rather than recycled materials in plastic products, which means we are continually making the problem worse. We are adding more and more and more plastic to the system. This use of virgin polymers for new plastics is a problem. Virgin polymers are manufactured using unrecycled and previously unused materials. It's ultimately oil. This is big oil wanting to maintain the addiction to plastic so that we continue to use their product. But technology has moved on. We know we can use much more recycled content, so that must be the direction we go in.

We had submissions to the committee from people who believe the federal government should implement a tax or levy that specifically targets virgin plastic to discourage its use and promote the use of recycled materials. Whilst the committee recommended investigating a levy on the use of virgin polymers, it fell short of recommending that it be mandatory. We've been waiting for this for a long time. We have had voluntary industry codes. I believe that time is up. We've had decades of lacklustre action from manufacturers and industry, and it's time for them to have their house in order.

The government should be implementing mandates for minimum recycled content in any imported plastics and mandating limits on the number of polymer variations—to put it in layman's terms, the number of variations to the recipes or to the types of plastics that are manufactured. Unfortunately there's a difficulty in establishing a good recycling industry. The more variations of polymers and types of plastics we have, the harder it is to establish proper recycling supply chains and circular economy aspects for all the different types. If you limit the number of them you can facilitate a much higher level of recycling, which is incredibly important.

Microplastics are the much tinier pellets and smaller pieces of plastic. They are more insidious and they get into more areas. Essentially, they are small pieces of plastic less than five millimetres long, and they are found in all parts of our environment, all over the globe. They have even made it into the polar regions and into foods such as sea salt and beer. They're everywhere. Studies around the world are showing that microplastics carry harmful chemicals and toxins, but we're still learning the full extent to which microplastics may be harmful. This is a reminder that, while technology creates progress, it can sometimes take us backwards. There was a lot of concern raised about artificial turf on sports playing fields and the plastic rubber that is used in playground equipment. For all of those uses of plastic, we do not require adequate protection for the drainage around them. Small particles leak into the environment, and that creates a huge amount of microplastic in the surrounding areas.

The recommendations in this report address a number of important issues, and I hope that the government does take note. We also saw the efforts of Indigenous communities and First Nations Australians in reducing plastics in our environment. We have a lot of expertise and, I think, a huge amount of willingness. Every school I visit in Warringah does Plastic Free Wednesday, where there's a focus by young people on limiting the use of plastic. But, clearly, we need to sheet it back home to manufacturers, who are still producing too much plastic and putting too much into the system.

See this speech in context