Industry and environment groups seek urgent packaging law

Environment and industry groups have joined forces to urge the Minister for Environment, Murray Watt, to take urgent action to complete consultations and gazettal of a mandatory producer responsibility scheme to apply obligations and targets across the life cycle of packaging, including for soft plastics.

The groups said such a scheme will tackle the millions of tonnes of packaging that currently has limited Australian end markets, and will advance the circular economy, which is a key component of improving the productivity of the broader Australian economy.

“When such a diverse group gets together on an issue, it means the problem is big and urgent and government can have the confidence it can quickly move ahead in a substantial way,” said Jeff Angel, Director of the Boomerang Alliance of 56 NGOs.

Suzanne Toumbourou, CEO of ACOR, stated that packaging reform is not just an environmental imperative — it’s a structural economic opportunity to realise the full potential of a circular economy for packaging.

“This means mandating design standards, addressing the real cost of recycling, rewarding the use of recycled materials, and bringing consistency to a fragmented system,” she said.

Chris Foley, CEO of APCO, said that extensive consultations have underscored the establishment of an industry-led Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) program, improvements to recovery infrastructure, and stronger end-market incentives as key priorities to achieving the National Packaging Targets (NPTs) and a circular economy.

“Concurrent, timely confirmation of national packaging design standards and recycled content mandates by the government would maximise the impact of these initiatives, sustaining progress towards the targets,” Foley said.

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