Kate Chaney (Curtin, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Australia generates more single-use plastic waste per person than any other country, except Singapore. On average, we produce 59 kilos of single-use plastic waste per person per year, compared to the global average of 15 kilos, and most of this comes from packaging. Plastic packaging is the single biggest use of plastic, accounting for 36 per cent of plastic worldwide. Nearly all plastic packaging is single-use, and hardly any of it is recycled. It ends up in landfill. Plastic pollutes our environment and contributes to climate change because it's made from fossil fuels. To reduce plastic packaging pollution, we must reduce the production of plastic packaging.

The government is developing new packaging regulations to reduce waste and last month sought feedback on the long-awaited draft options for reform. The regulations will increase recycling and ban harmful chemicals, but there's currently no plan to reduce fossil fuel plastic packaging. We can't recycle our way out of plastic pollution. We need to reduce the production of packaging and reuse the packaging that has already been produced. One of my volunteer groups, the Curtin net zero waste group, has been working with me on a petition that asks environment minister Tanya Plibersek to include measures to reduce plastic packaging use in the new regulations. With 12,539 signatures already, I hope the minister will take note.