Skip to main content Skip to main navigation Skip to search

Queensland and NSW floods 2022

Visit recovery.gov.au to see what help is available.

Close
Home

Top navigation main

  • News & media
  • Jobs
  • Ministers
  • Contact us
Main menu

AWE Main

  • Agriculture and land
    Agriculture and land Building stronger and more sustainable agriculture, fisheries, forestry and land care.
    • Animal health
    • Farming, food and drought
    • Fisheries
    • Forestry
    • Land
    • Climate change and agriculture
    • Plant health
    • Drought and rural support
    • Mouse infestation advice
    Xylella

    Protect against unwanted plant pests

    Our biosecurity system helps protects us. Everyone has a role in supporting our biosecurity system.

    Find out more

  • Water
    Water Improving the sustainable management of Australia’s water resources for agriculture, the environment and communities.
    • Coal, Coal seam gas (CSG) and water
    • Commonwealth Environmental Water Office
    • Water policy and resources
    • Wetlands
    Water matters

    Water Matters

    Keep up with the latest news on the department's work in managing Australia's water resources.

    Read the latest edition here

  • Environment
    Environment Improving stewardship and sustainable management of Australia’s environment.
    • Biodiversity
    • Bushfire recovery
    • Climate change and the environment
    • EPBC Act
    • Environmental information and data
    • International activities
    • Marine
    • Partnerships
    • Protection
    • Report a breach of environment law
    • Threatened species & ecological communities
    • Waste and recycling
  • Biosecurity and trade
    Biosecurity and trade Lowering biosecurity risks to Australia, and assisting industry to accelerate growth towards a $100 billion agricultural sector by 2030.
    • Aircraft, vessels and military
    • Biosecurity policy
    • Cats and dogs
    • Exporting
    • Importing
    • Invasive species
    • Pests, diseases and weeds
    • Public awareness and education
    • Trade and market access
    • Travelling or sending goods to Australia
    • Wildlife trade
    Brown marmorated stink bug

    BMSB Seasonal Measures

    Australia has strengthened seasonal measures to manage the risk of BMSB.

    View our seasonal measures

  • Parks and heritage
    Parks and heritage Managing Australia’s iconic national parks, historic places and living landscapes.
    • Australian Marine Parks
    • Australian National Botanic Gardens
    • Booderee National Park
    • Kakadu National Park
    • Christmas Island National Park
    • National parks
    • Norfolk Island National Park
    • Heritage
    • Pulu Keeling National Park
    • The Great Barrier Reef
    • Uluṟu-Kata Tjuṯa National Park
    The reef

    Great Barrier Reef

    Australia is protecting and conserving this World Heritage Area.

    Find out more

  • Science and research
    Science and research Undertaking research and collecting data to support informed decisions and policies.
    • Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences (ABARES)
    • Climate change
    • Australia's biological resources
    • National Environmental Science Program (NESP)
    • Our science strategy
    • Australian Biological Resource Study (ABRS)
    • State of the Environment (SoE) reporting
    • Bird and bat banding
    • Supervising Scientist
    Abares

    ABARES Insights

    Get 'snapshots’ of agricultural, forestry and fisheries industries, or analysis of key issues.

    Find out more

  • About us
    About us Enhancing Australia’s agriculture, environment, heritage and water resources through regulation and partnership.
    • Accountability and reporting
    • Assistance, grants and tenders
    • Contact us
    • Fees and charges
    • News and media
    • Our commitment to you
    • Payments
    • People and jobs
    • Publications
    • What we do
    • Who we are
    A day in the life

    A day in the life...

    Our video series showcases the diverse and important work we do.

    Find out more

  • Online services
    Online services We do business with you using online platforms. This makes it easier for you to meet your legal requirements.
Department of Agriculture

Breadcrumb

  1. Home
  2. Environment
  3. Environment protection
  4. Waste and recycling
  5. Plastics
  6. National Plastics Plan
  7. Prevention—Addressing plastics at the source

Sidebar first - EN - Protection

  • National Plastics Plan
    • Prevention
    • Recycling
    • Consumers
    • Plastics in our oceans and waterways
    • Research, Innovation and Data
    • National Plastics Summit

Prevention—Addressing plastics at the source

Person holding a sustainable toothbrush, with a collection of sustainable straws paper, metal and metal straw cleaners.

Person holding a sustainable toothbrush, with a collection of sustainable straws paper, metal and metal straw cleaners.

The simplest way to reduce plastic waste is to avoid unnecessary and problematic plastics. Improving product design is the most effective way to reduce the amount of plastic waste we create.

Actions to avoid problematic and unnecessary plastics

Click on a heading below or Show all | Hide all

Phase out problematic and unnecessary plastics

Work with industry to fast-track the phase out of polymer types in certain applications, and consider regulatory action should industry phase outs not be achieved:

  • Phase out plastic packaging products with additive fragmentable technology that do not meet relevant compostable standards (AS4736-2006, AS5810-2010 and EN13432) (July 2022)
  • Phase out expanded polystyrene (EPS) from loose packaging fill and moulded packaging in consumer packaging (July 2022), and EPS food and beverage containers (December 2022)
  • Phase out PVC packaging labels (December 2022)

Plastic Free Beaches

Work with Boomerang Alliance to eliminate single-use plastics from Australia’s favourite beaches and support local businesses to switch to alternative products.

Plastics Design Summit

Hold a Plastics Design Summit in 2021 for product designers and manufacturers to showcase their sustainable product design.

Industry shift to easily recyclable plastics

Industry to transition towards higher-value, easily recyclable plastics such as PET, HDPE, LDPE and PP, and encourage the design of easier to recycle products.

National Packaging Targets

Industry to deliver 4 National Packaging Targets by 2025 of which 2 concern prevention:

  • 100% of packaging being reusable, recyclable or compostable
  • phase out of problematic and unnecessary single-use plastic.
 paper, metal and metal straw cleaners

A collection of sustainable straws: paper, metal and metal straw cleaners

Polypropylene rolls for packaging. Best used for promoting chemical products and recycled products.

Polypropylene rolls for packaging. Best used for promoting chemical products and recycled products.

Packing goods in cardboard box with styrofoam material for safe transportation of cargo.

Packing goods in cardboard box with styrofoam material for safe transportation of cargo.

Case studies

The simplest way to reduce plastic waste and pollution is to avoid unnecessary and problematic plastics. Several state and territory governments have already taken successful steps to ban specific problematic single-use plastics. The following are case studies that highlight how industry and government are taking the necessary steps to reduce the amount of problematic and unnecessary plastics used in Australia.

Officeworks phases out EPS packaging

Officeworks has taken action to reduce unnecessary packaging material, including expanded polystyrene (EPS).

Officeworks has removed EPS from all packaging for furniture items, avoiding approximately 800,000 pieces of EPS each year. Strong relationships with international partners have allowed Officeworks to also influence the progress of removing or reducing polystyrene in their packaging for technology products.

Officeworks has also continued their commitment to the Australasian Recycling Label. It now features on over 4,000 of their own brand products. By phasing out EPS and becoming a member of RedCycle, over 90% of Officeworks private label products are now fully recyclable.

Through their Positive Difference Plan, Officeworks aims to make all private label packaging fully recyclable or reusable by December 2021.

Read about Officeworks and their commitment to sustainability.

ALDI

ALDI Australia (ALDI) has made a commitment to reduce plastic packaging in their stores by 25%. ALDI exclusive brand product packaging will be 100% recyclable, reusable or compostable by 2025.

These form part of the Plastics and Packaging Commitments announced by ALDI in 2019 to reduce its impact on the environment.

Examples of how ALDI has transitioned away from unnecessary plastics include:

  • A switch to cardboard punnets for a range of fruit and vegetable lines and the removal of plastic bags from banana stands.
  • Introducing compostable zucchini trays, which has diverted over 76 tonnes of plastic from landfill.
  • Switching to clear meat packaging to reduce the use of difficult to recycle black plastic packaging.
  • Introducing paper-stemmed cotton buds by the end of 2020 which will avoid over 357 million plastic stems ending up in landfill each year.
  • Switching to more compostable and recyclable alternatives to plastic tableware by the end of 2020.

ALDI will continue to publicly report on the progress of its Plastics and Packaging Commitments, starting from 2020. See ALDI’s Plastics and Packaging.

State and territory phaseouts of problematic and single-use plastics

The Australian Government will work with industry and state and territory governments to phase out problematic single-use plastics. This delivers on Target 5 of the National Waste Policy Action Plan (NWPAP).

To deliver on these targets the Australian Government will work with industry to phase out the most problematic and unnecessary plastic materials currently in circulation.

Many state, territory, and local governments have already banned certain problematic, unnecessary and single-use plastics and plastic packaging.

Many businesses are also taking proactive steps to phase out problematic plastic packaging. Plastic packaging represents approximately one million tonnes of Australia’s annual plastic consumption. In 2018-19 about 85% of plastics no longer used were disposed to landfill. This has resulted in at least 50 mega tonnes of plastic accumulating in Australian landfills.

Thanks for your feedback.
Thanks! Your feedback has been submitted.

We aren't able to respond to your individual comments or questions.
To contact us directly phone us or submit an online inquiry

CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.

Please verify that you are not a robot.

Skip

Footer

  • Contact us
  • Accessibility
  • Disclaimer
  • Privacy
  • FOI
Last updated: 07 January 2022

© Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment

We acknowledge the Traditional Owners of country throughout Australia and recognise their continuing connection to land, waters and culture. We pay our respects to their Elders past, present and emerging.