Teal MPs have backed calls for the Albanese government to crack down on Australia’s plastic waste crisis, supporting a push to force manufacturers to take responsibility for the packaging they produce instead of leaving it to consumers to recycle.
Australians churn through 1.3 million tonnes of plastic packaging each year but almost all of it ends up in landfill or littering the environment.
Plastic waste management practices – like recycling, composting, and energy recovery – were found to be unfit for purpose in a 2024 Australia Institute report, which concluded less than 20 per cent of all plastic waste generated in the two decades prior had been recovered through these methods.
Mackellar MP Sophie Scamps, whose Northern Beaches electorate has seen the first-hand impacts of plastic pollution on beaches and marine life, said the problem could not be solved by households alone.
She, alongside Curtin MP Kate Chaney and charity Boomerang Alliance, are calling on the federal government to establish a comprehensive producer responsibility scheme, covering the life cycle of all packaging and producers; set mandatory national targets for reduction, reuse, recycling and recycled content for plastic packaging, and immediately roll out a national, producer-funded soft plastics collection scheme with mandatory producer participation.
“For too long many corporations have shirked responsibility for the plastic waste they produce by putting the onus on individuals and households to deal with the problem,” Dr Scamps said.
“Voluntary corporate schemes have failed. It’s time to make it mandatory for all corporations to take responsibility for their plastic waste – including how much new plastic is generated, and how it is collected, recycled and reused.”
Ms Cheney echoed this sentiment, describing plastic pollution as a “systems problem”.
“And if we want to fix it, we need to control the waste at its source, not just deal with it after the fact.
“Households and local councils can’t keep footing the clean-up bill, because year-on-year these costs are growing.
“By making producers responsible for the full life‑cycle of packaging, an Extended Producer Responsibility scheme encourages less plastic, better design, and stronger reuse and recycling
systems, so communities aren’t left dealing with the waste.”
