National packaging and waste reduction targets designed to increase recycling, help build a circular economy and minimise plastic pollution are likely to be regulated and enforced after decades of failed voluntary industry-led schemes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Following questioning from Senator Peter Whish-Wilson in Senate Estimates, the federal environment department acknowledged a move is underway to reset recycling and waste reduction laws, with hopes a national enforceable scheme to clean up plastic packaging waste will be established by 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Greens spokesperson for waste and recycling, Senator Peter Whish-Wilson said:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe failure of the Federal Government to hold big plastic producers and polluters to account for the mess they make has dragged on long enough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt\u2019s a relief to see the federal environment department signal a long overdue move to establish a legally enforceable producer-responsibility scheme under federal laws. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cFor years the Greens, waste advocacy groups, and the recycling industry have called for the government to regulate strict national waste reduction and recycling targets. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cFor too long successive governments have allowed big producers of plastic pollution to self-regulate their own voluntary waste reduction and recycling targets, without any penalties for failure or fear of regulation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cMost Australians would applaud federal government leadership in developing a new regulatory framework for waste reduction, especially one that removes unnecessary single-use plastics from our waste stream, promotes the redesign of packaging for a circular economy and provides the recycling industry with the investment confidence needed to upgrade infrastructure. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cA new approach to waste reduction and recycling is long overdue and if done right, will no doubt be a huge win for jobs, innovation, and Australia\u2019s environment and oceans.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" National packaging and waste reduction targets designed to increase recycling, help build a circular economy and minimise plastic pollution are likely to be regulated and enforced after decades of failed voluntary industry-led schemes. Following questioning from Senator Peter Whish-Wilson in Senate Estimates, the federal environment department acknowledged a move is underway to reset recycling and … Continue reading “GOVERNMENT FINALLY ACTING ON PLASTIC PACKAGING POLLUTION”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21270","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aussie"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21270","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21270"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21270\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21271,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21270\/revisions\/21271"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}