The National Retail Association has made a preliminary assessment of the New South Wales governments Next Steps discussion paper. The paper focuses on items from the 2020-21 Key Littered Items Study NSW EPA Report.

There are three key pillars, outlined in the discussion paper:

Pillar one: Reduce all litter items by 60% by 2030 and reduce plastic litter items by 30% by 2025
  • Plastic cups (could include both hot and cold cups as well as their lids)
  • Bowls with lids & food containers (could include a wide variety of containers and packaging)
  • Plastic lollipop sticks, ice cream sticks, other food service sticks
  • Plastic beverage container bottle lids (design standard for tethered lids)
  • Cigarette butts (design standard, working with Commonwealth)
Pillar two: Act against harmful chemicals in plastics and microplastics
  • PFAS 
  • Microbeads in all cleaning products (expanding on ban on microbeads in personal care)
  • Oxo-degradable, photo-degradable, landfill-degradable
  • Microplastics from washing machines (design standard for microfiber filter for all new machines)
Pillar three: Align with other states and territories
  • Heavyweight bags (considering reuse standard, or a ban similar to WA, SA and ACT)
  • Single-serve plastic condiment packages (e.g. soy sauce fish) 
  • Balloon releases and accessories (balloon sticks, ties)
  • “Other”
    • EPS food trays
    • EPS loose fill
    • Barrier bags
    • Fruit stickers
    • Pizza savers
    • Bread tags

Businesses of all types and sizes are encouraged to review the NSW Discussion Paper and express your views via the survey or a written submission (details here: https://yoursay.epa.nsw.gov.au/plastics-paper). The National Retail Association will prepare a response on behalf of members and industry. Members seeking to contribute should contact the Policy team at policy@nationalretail.org.au.

Other single-use plastic bans

Multiple states and territories are implementing further single-use plastic bans in coming months. By January, heavyweight plastic shopping bags will be banned in the ACT, by March WA will ban a range of items including coffee cups and cup lids, and by September both SA and WA will implement bans on multiple items including takeaway food containers.

Need advice? The National Retail Association provides a range of support services, such as a tollfree hotline, free information sessions and thousands of store visits, for businesses needing help to understand the varying bans across different states and territories.

Businesses can join the National Retail Association’s free online information sessions held on the first Friday of every month (register via https://bit.ly/nr-sustainability)  or call our tollfree hotline 1800 844 946 for advice.

For more information on all plastic bans across Australia and New Zealand, visit http://bit.ly/3r3sz69