New NSW Plastics Paper open for industry feedback now

NSW EPA published an exploratory paper with a consultation and submission period early this year. National Retail provided an extensive submission and attended consultation workshops outlining industry’s roadmap for single-use plastics and our recommended strategies to develop a truly circular economy in Australia.

NSW EPA have now published the long-awaited NSW Plastics Action Paper outlining proposed bans and action on plastic from 2025 to 2030.

Download the Paper

The extensive paper details bans and other actions staggered between 2025 and 2030. A summary is provided below but we encourage businesses to read the full consultation paper.

DOWNLOAD THE PAPER

What’s proposed (in summary)

1. Reduce littering of takeaway food and beverage packaging

By end 2025

  • Phase out the supply of single-use plastic lollipop sticks

By end 2027

  • Require food service venues such as fast-food restaurants and cafes to accept reusable cups. We will also trial reusable cups in government premises and develop reuse toolkits for reuse-only precincts
  • Require single-use plastic cups for cold beverages, single-use plastic food containers, and their lids to
    be recyclable
  • Require takeaway food service venues to display anti-litter messaging in their shopfronts
  • Require anti-littering labels and the Australasian Recycling Label on single-use plastic cups, single-use plastic food containers and single-serve condiment packages

By end of 2030

  • Require single-serve condiment packages to be recyclable, supported by a co-designed roadmap that will take them towards circularity
  • Explore expanding Return and Earn to accept single-use plastic cups for cold beverages and takeaway plastic food containers
  • Require plastic lids to be tethered to Return and Earn-eligible plastic bottles <600 ml, and work with other states and territories to ensure container deposit schemes across Australia accept plastic bottle lids

2. Reduce littering of cigarette butts

By end 2027

  • Work with other Australian jurisdictions on a national approach to reduce the harmful impact of cigarette butts in the environment

3. Using our litter data

By end 2025

  • Explore options to make litter data reporting more transparent, including publishing the brand data of littered items
  • Consider requiring brand owners of highly littered plastic items to set litter reduction targets

4. Eliminate harmful chemicals in food packaging

By end 2027

  • Publish a ‘green list’ of chemicals that can be used in food packaging below certain tolerable risk thresholds
  • Publish a ‘red list’ of chemicals that are proposed to be phased out of food packaging within specified timeframes
  • Support increased chemical testing capacity for packaging in NSW
  • Introduce a voluntary chemical certification and labelling scheme for food packaging, to be made mandatory in five years

5. Reduce microplastics in the environment

By end 2025

  • Phase out the supply of plastics containing pro-degradant additives (oxo-, photo-, and landfill-degradable plastics)
  • Phase out plastic microbeads from all cleaning products

By end 2027

  • Require new washing machines to be rated on their ability to capture and reduce microfibres

6. Plastic shopping and barrier bags

By end 2025

  • Adopt Queensland’s reuse and recycled content standards for heavyweight plastic film shopping bags
  • Require plastic shopping bags to be stored out of sight at the point of purchase and only provided on request, unless they are clearly designed for reuse or are part of an extended producer responsibility scheme for plastic recycling.

By end 2027

  • Phase out the supply of unnecessary plastic barrier bags
  • Require anti-littering labels and the Australasian Recycling Label on plastic shopping bags and plastic barrier bags
  • Eliminate harmful chemicals from plastic shopping bags and plastic barrier bags

7. Small food packaging items

By end 2025

  • Phase out the supply of plastic pizza savers
  • Phase out the supply of plastic food tags for bread, bakery and dry pantry items, with a temporary exemption for plastic tags for produce bags until end 2029

By end 2030

  • Require fruit and vegetable stickers and their adhesives to be certified compostable

8. Balloons

By end 2025

  • Phase out the release of lighter-than-air balloons
  • Phase out the supply of plastic balloon sticks, clips and ties

9. Expanded plastic packaging

By end 2025

  • Adopt Western Australia’s approach to phase out the supply of food trays, loose-fill packaging, and moulded or cut packaging made of expanded and foamed plastic.

 

Have your say

Industry input and feedback welcome – closes 4 November 2024.

We encourage every retailer and business across the supply chain to get involved, share your expertise and fill in the online survey.

You can also send an email or written submission directly to NSW EPA (plasticsconsultation@epa.nsw.gov.au).

MORE INFORMATION

National Retail will be making a submission. Members are welcome to contact the Policy team to provide input: policy@nationalretail.org.au