Boomerang Alliance Newsletter - July 2021

Posted by on July 13, 2021
July 2021
 
 

WINNING CAMPAIGNS

It’s been an exciting few months, with state after state announcing bans on polluting single use plastic items. We’ve been on the campaign trail for over five years and the momentum created by BA supporters and the great wellspring of concern in the community has carried us through. To their credit, some key businesses and industry associations have also played a constructive role.

South Australia, the ACT and soon Queensland will have fully implemented tranche 1 bans this year with Western Australia and NSW following next year. A second tranche of items will be regulated for removal in the two years after that - and by 2025, the supermarket shelves and food service sector will look very different. Check out the full list of single use plastics that are being targeted.

Our Plastic Free Places program is also expanding and it is giving us an insight into the fake alternatives, that some misguided or mischievous businesses are trying to put onto market. We will be closely monitoring these and preparing reports on the greenwash for government and ACCC action.

We are taking the fight up to the Australian Packaging Covenant and the packaging sector which is relying on voluntary action to achieve the ambitious 2025 goals, like a 70% recycling rate and 20% recycled content in plastic packaging. The sector has never met its targets since its creation in 1999 and our focus is on making the goals mandatory, so the environment does not need to suffer any more wastage and pollution from weak business action. We have put government and business on notice with our Plan B.

After a 13 year campaign Australia will be the first continent on the planet to be fully covered by container deposit schemes. We are staying in touch with the Victorian and Tasmanian governments as they develop their CDS legislation to ensure the best practise model is fully actioned. And already the bottle to bottle recycling industry is gearing up with major investments in new reprocessing facilities using the billions of containers collected each year. 

With your continuing support, our campaigns aim to have:

  • Every state and territory with a best practice container refund scheme and bans on problem single use plastics by 2023.

  • A national phase-out of heavyweight plastics bags and ban on balloon release.

  • Mandatory rules that ensure all packaging that is marked as reusable, compostable or recyclable is actually reused, composted or recycled in practice.

  • Lastly, the Australian Government take a leading role in developing an international treaty to prevent plastic pollution of the oceans and marine environments around the world.

Jeff Angel
Director
 
STATE OF PLAY - Single Use Plastic Phase Out Policies

Our years of campaigning for single use plastic ban have finally paid off with six out of eight Australian states and territories now committed to ban single-use plastics.
 
CAMPAIGN UPDATES
 

HEAVYWEIGHT PLASTIC BAGS IN THE FIRING LINE

Boomerang Alliance and our allies have put forward a proposal on how states and territories should address the continued use of heavyweight plastic bags. We have called for new regulations to control ALL shopping carry bags, with a program to eliminate single-use bags in the next 4 years.

PLASTIC FREE JULY IS HERE AGAIN AND IT'S 10 YEARS OLD THIS YEAR!

There are many ways to take part in Plastic Free July, with your family, household, workplace, school or faith group. If you are a first time PFJ'er you might try to cut out the top littered single-use plastic items: plastic bags, bottles, straws and coffee cups.

CDS ON THE MOVE

Having opted for the "split responsibility model" supported by BA, the Tasmanian and Victorian governments are now proceeding to develop legislation and a tender process for the separate Coordinators and Network Operators.

PLASTIC PACT - NOT EXCITING

With great fanfare, the Australian Packaging Covenant (APC) launched the Plastic Pact (ANZPAC) – a voluntary program involving Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific, where businesses aim to reduce their virgin plastic footprint.

PLASTIC FREE PLACES UPDATE

2021 is shaping up to be the biggest year yet for our Plastic Free Places program. We’re heading for 10 million plastic items saved; increasing our focus on reusables; and by early next year we will have projects in ALL states and territories of Australia!
   
 

Exciting news… it is now illegal to deliberately release balloons in Victoria! 

This month Victoria's new Environmental Protection Act comes into effect which states deliberately releasing balloons into the environment is now considered to be littering and is therefore illegal in Victoria.

This is particularly good news for seabirds as balloons are the deadliest form of litter when swallowed by them! (CSIRO 2019). 

Keep an eye on Zoos Victoria’s Facebook page for a celebratory video this week.
 
 
We would not have been able to do all these works without our supporters. Please donate so we can continue our fight against plastic pollution.
 

 

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Copyright 2021 Boomerang Alliance © All Rights Reserved

 

We acknowledge that the name of our organisation includes the name of the Aboriginal tool, the BOOMERANG, adopted for the symbolism of returning to the user. We hope that the resources we use, which all come from the land, will be part of a circular economy and return to that economy again and again. We respectfully commit to Care for Country in the spirit of the Indigenous custodians of this land and these waters. We recognise that there has never been compensation for stolen country. We continue to show our respect to Indigenous leaders, past, present and emerging. May we all walk respectfully on the land and protect the waterways which are life.

 

 

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