Kylea Tink (North Sydney, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is for the Minister for the Environment and Water. Australia's largest plastic-bag recycling program has collapsed, and this comes after a series of failures in the industry including stockpiling, dumping, toxic fires, poor regulation, high costs and the closure of international markets. Households are doing the responsible thing, recycling the plastics, but industry and the government are letting them down. Can the minister please outline the specific steps she will take to ensure the recycling industry delivers for Australians and our environment?

Tanya Plibersek (Sydney, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Environment and Water) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to thank the member for North Sydney for her question. I know that she and her constituents are passionately committed to increasing recycling rates, as we all are. It was very bad news yesterday when we heard that REDcycle, which was established in around 2011, has actually closed its doors. REDcycle has collected about 5.4 billion pieces of soft plastic in the time that it has been operating. Of course, if REDcycle hadn't collected that soft plastic, it would have ended up in landfill. We know that families are very keen to do their bit for recycling. I'm sure most of us do this—we collect our soft plastics, take them back down to the supermarket next time we're going to the supermarket and see them go into the REDcycle bin. And we know that when that plastic is collected by REDcycle, it's actually quite a valuable commodity. It goes into making Coles supermarket trolleys, it goes into footpaths and garden edging and a whole range of very useful products.

I was very disappointed, as the member for North Sydney was, to hear that REDcycle has closed its doors, and I have spoken to Coles and Woolworths today, and the Food and Grocery Council, to see what we'll do in the immediate future period and then in the longer term. Immediately, we see absolutely tons of soft plastics that have been stockpiled. We have to deal with that stockpile first. Longer term, we have to invest in the infrastructure that will recycle this plastic. This government are already playing a role. With environment ministers around the country, we've upped our ambition. We've given $1 million to the Australian Food and Grocery Council to work with industry to develop more sustainable uses for these plastics. We've set aside $60 million for hard-to-recycle plastics specifically. We're working across Australia to phase out single-use plastics—bags, plates, cups, stirrers, plastic cutlery—

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

Tanya Plibersek (Sydney, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Environment and Water) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I hear those opposite interjecting. Sadly, they set a target of 70 per cent of plastics to be recycled or compostable by 2025, and guess what they achieved? Sixteen per cent, and stuck there for four years, no improvement. So you can stop with the interjecting. It would be better if you'd done your job when you had the chance! Mr Speaker, I'll tell you this: families are committed to action. This government is committed to action. It's important that industry also does its share.