Updated 15 April 2020
The Queensland Government has announced plans to introduce legislation to phase out certain plastic products. These include plastic straws, stirrers, cutlery, and plates (taking into account the disability needs of people).
The phase-out should include, after further analysis, coffee cups, other plastics, and heavyweight plastic bags.
In the first stage of the phase-out, plastic straws, stirrers, cutlery, and plates would not be allowed to be supplied to the public from July 2021.
Say ‘see ya later’ to single-use plastics!
Wildlife Queensland needs as many branches, supporters and members of the public as possible to back this legislation. You can see the Regulatory Impact Statement here.
There is a short survey you can take online, or use the submission form below.
The updated closing date for submissions is 5.00 pm, 30 April 2020.
The government statement provides four choices to eliminate these plastic products:
- Maintain the status quo
- Ban these products from use
- Implement a statewide education campaign
- Provide more litter collection
Wildlife Queensland says there is only one effective option … BAN THESE PRODUCTS FROM USE!
There are available and preferred options for all of them, and, as the plastic bag ban has shown, litter will be drastically reduced. In the first year of the lightweight plastic bag ban, plastic bag litter reduced by 70 per cent.
Read more about our Single-use Plastic Free Queensland Campaign.
Send an email submission by 5.00 pm, 30 April 2020 to the Department of Environment and Science to say the most effective way to reduce plastic litter and reduce the terrible impact on wildlife from plastic pollution is to ban single-use plastic items.
[contact-form-7 id=”114364″ title=”Have Your Say: Single-use Plastics in Queensland”]
Alternatively, just copy or cut and paste the below statement, add your details and send your submission by email or post to the State Government:
Mail: Single-Use Plastic Consultation RIS
Department of Environment and Science
Office of Resource Recovery
PO Box 2454
BRISBANE 4001
Email: WastePolicy@des.gov.au
Submission deadline: 30 April 2020
RE: I support a Queensland ban on single-use plastic items
I support a Queensland ban on plastic straws, stirrers, cutlery and plates, with coffee cups, other plastic items and heavyweight shopping bags added as soon as possible (taking into account the needs of people with a disability). This is the most effective way to reduce plastic litter and reduce the terrible impact on wildlife from plastic pollution.
There are preferred alternatives to all these products that include not using them or having reusable products instead. If the government plans to allow compostable alternatives, these should be required to meet the Australian compost standards for this type of packaging (AS 4736-commercial AS 5810-home).
The government has NOT included polystyrene cups or polystyrene containers such as clamshells in the first stage of the phase-out. These polystyrene items should be included now. They are a particularly bad litter problem, have plenty of alternatives and we note that polystyrene products are included in similar proposed bans in South Australia and the ACT.
Yours sincerely
[Your Name, Address and Signature]