Warren Entsch (Leichhardt, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Not a day goes by that we don't interact with or use something made from plastic. It's absolutely everywhere. It has transformed industry and forever changed the way in which we conduct business and carry out our daily lives. The problem with plastics is that when we use them—too often fleetingly—they inevitably end up in the bin. The way we handle plastics is entirely linear. This take-make-dispose one-way path overwhelmingly leads to landfill and environmental leakage. It's true the Morrison government is making progress. We have made some significant investments in an effort to transform the industry and promote a more circular economy, and we have put waste firmly on the national agenda. But, even still, there are inherent issues with plastics that we need to grapple with, the most challenging of which is the untaxed negative externality of plastic waste. For those unfamiliar with the term 'untaxed negative externality', it is an interesting concept that economists throw around a fair bit, particularly when it comes to the environment, but it's easily understood through an example. Imagine for a moment that your neighbour pumps the outflow of his septic tank into your backyard and then expects that you should pay to clean up the mess. If you do but you then send your neighbour the bill, is it really a tax or is it just a means of putting the financial burden where it belongs?

With plastics, the untaxed negative externality is principally its pervasive nature and increasing presence in our environment, especially our oceans. We've all seen the horrific photos of deceased birds and aquatic life, where researchers cut open their stomachs and examine their intestinal tracts, finding them full to the brim with nothing but plastic litter. This tragic environmental consequence is simply not taken into consideration by black and white economics, and we are now learning that the harm of plastics goes beyond just the environment. Research indicates that microplastic fragments are now routinely making their way into our own diets. Some studies even suggest that we could be ingesting around 2,000 tiny pieces of plastic each week, equivalent to about a teaspoonful of plastic. This is being driven by the increasing amount of plastic waste entering our environment. Globally, each year, about eight million tonnes of plastic leaks into the ocean, which is equivalent to dumping the contents of one garbage truck into the ocean every minute.

Meanwhile, every year, the global production and volume of plastics continues on an upward trajectory. A record 359 million tonnes was produced worldwide in 2018. When even a fraction of this massive production enters our precious environment, particularly our marine environment, the timer starts, as the plastic begins to break down into smaller and smaller fragments. These macro and micro plastic particles are more easily ingested by wildlife at every level of the food chain, which in turn increases the likelihood that plastic inadvertently ends up on our plates. We know that there is huge ecological damage occurring as a result of the world's unabated consumption of plastic, but virtually none of the damage is priced into the plastic products that these large multinationals are producing. Nevertheless, a price is being paid, first and foremost by the environment and, secondly, through the expense incurred by the actions required to remove the sheer volume of plastic waste trashing the environment.

While we have a significant transformation underway with the waste management industry here in Australia, there are plenty more challenges to overcome in other regions. Developing nations typically have less capacity to manage these challenges and may have laxer environmental regulations or perhaps a lack of wherewithal to enforce them. We know that around 82 per cent of all ocean plastic leakages originate from nations within the Asia-Pacific region. But, before we rush in to chastise these nations, we must remember that they have long been the literal dumping ground for the world's unwanted waste and low-quality recycling material. In recent years, many of these nations have rightly refused to accept international waste exports. Their decisions have prompted a reckoning of waste across the globe. The Morrison government's waste export ban is a pivotal policy that acknowledges the futility of waste exports and rejects the worst of these kinds of linear economic models. As the Prime Minister has rightly said, it is our waste and it is our responsibility to deal with it.

How should we deal with this reckoning? First, let me start by applauding the minister, Minister Ley, Assistant Minister Evans and indeed the leadership of the Prime Minister on this issue. Under their stewardship we have made significant commitments and progress, increasing our own domestic waste management capacity, driving industry co-investment and revolutionising Australia's approach to waste. But we need to resolve the underlying economic challenges and the pricing disparity between recycled and virgin plastic material. In my recent report to Minister Ley earlier this year, I recommended that the minister consider exploring whether a virgin plastic tax or levy or market mechanism may help to address the negative externality from plastic waste and consider leveraging the revenue generated to assist the transition to a circular economy and improve the economic viability of recycled plastic material. While I agree that we should not aim to deploy taxation as a primary instrument in our efforts to resolve all of our challenges, it is clear in this instance that we need to take some significant steps to address the inherent economic challenges of the problems.

There are plenty of people who agree with my assessment. Earlier this week, I had a teleconference with Dr Andrew Forrest, the billionaire philanthropist and founder of the Minderoo Foundation. Twiggy and his team have been undertaking some important work attempting to find and a solution to the economic side of the plastic equation. There are well-researched estimates that indicate that plastic is costing the world somewhere above US$2.2 trillion per year in environmental and social damage. That is US$2.2 trillion in annual external costs of plastic pollution that is not captured in the production costs and has resulted in virgin plastic being so cheap and so devastating in our environment. While we want businesses to use recycled plastic material more, it requires more effort and more energy; it is more expensive; and typically the material is of worse quality or is perceived as such. The only real benefit from recycled plastic is the reduced environmental impact, but that value is not tangible to business and other economic rationalists. So on a purely economic basis you can understand completely why the status quo has resulted in little uptake of recycled material across the world. This is precisely why we should start pulling policy levers to internalise the true cost of virgin plastic.

At present there is an estimated 150 million tonnes of plastic in our marine environment. This staggering amount of waste is growing. It is predicted that by 2050 ocean plastic will surpass the total weight of fish in the world's oceans. If we are to pursue a pricing mechanism to resolve this crisis, we could redeploy the revenue generated to further assist the industry to adopt circular models and make significant strides in addressing the waste that is currently entering the environment. In addition, we could consider funding more equitable solutions for our regional and remote communities who are affected by the tyranny of distance. Too often it is the distance that makes circular waste solutions not viable for our regional communities, and they are often left with landfill as their only option. But there are opportunities in a community if we improve the recycling rates. We know that for every 10,000 tonnes of waste that is sent to landfill there are approximately direct 2.8 jobs, whereas there are 9.2 direct jobs for the same amount of waste that is recycled instead.

Unless we fully commit to tackling the underlying economic challenges, plastic waste will continue as a blight upon the environment, a lost opportunity, and another testament to the unenviable by-products of the human condition in our insatiable desire to consume.

Rick Wilson (O'Connor, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The time for the grievance debate has expired. The debate is interrupted in accordance with the resolution agreed to earlier. The debate is adjourned and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting.