Lucy Wicks (Robertson, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for the Environment. Will the minister update the House on what steps the Morrison government is taking to improve recycling rates and the processing of waste?

Sussan Ley (Farrer, Liberal Party, Minister for the Environment) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Robertson for her question and her keen interest in keeping plastic out of our waterways and out of the ocean. Yesterday we held the National Plastics Summit here in Parliament House. I was joined by the member for Brisbane, the Assistant Minister for Waste Reduction and Environmental Management. Part of his drive and determination is to see new processing facilities across Australia as a result of our investment. I was joined by the fabulous reef envoy. He introduced 11-year-old Molly Steer. She's a student from Cairns and she talked about her campaign to get rid of plastic straws.

We as a government are committed to tackling plastic waste to not only clean up the environment but also create economic opportunities and jobs, because that's what we do. Our summit included over 300 senior members of government, industry and the community sector looking for new solutions to the plastic waste challenge and looking for further actions across industry and non-government organisations. The waste sector in Australia employs about 50,000 people and generates over $15 billion a year. For every 10,000 tonnes of waste that goes to landfill there are about 2.8 jobs. For the same amount of waste that is recycled there are close to 10 jobs. So this is an economic opportunity as well as protecting the environment. What was really exciting about yesterday was the way industry stepped up—some of them just out of nowhere it seemed—with pledges, with promises, with investment, with dollars.

Packaging company Pact Group announced $500 million of investment in recycling. That will divert two billion plastic containers from landfill by 2025. I know they're in the member for Robertson's electorate, where they're recycling about 300,000 wheelie bins. Retailer Coles announced more money to treble the amount of soft plastic it collects as you go in the supermarket in its REDcycle program. Nestle will partner with company IQ Renew in a trial that again will see more soft plastics turned into packaging. McDonald's is phasing out 550 tonnes of plastic cutlery, and Australia Post has pledged to make plastic post bags out of recycled material by 2020. To see these organisations step up and make that commitment to recycling was extraordinary.

Following Clean Up Australia Day on the weekend with Pip Kiernan, we used to pick up that rubbish and think about just putting it in a hole in the ground. Now we know that plastic we pick up off the ground is a resource. It can be recycled. It can be remanufactured. It can create jobs and it can do extraordinary things to the Australian economy. We saw national leadership in the national parliament and we are committed to fixing our plastic waste problem and stopping hundreds of tonnes of waste going into landfill. This is one of our most significant policies on recycling.