March 2023 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
It's Crunch Time Interesting times as government officials and the packaging industry finally admit they are not on track to meet the 2025 national recycling target. Some key voices will no doubt be calling for the date to be extended to 2030 – making the environment pay for their tardy actions. We say NO! Instead, the federal government must regulate to make the targets mandatory and for implementation of a fully funded producer stewardship scheme to support collection of discarded packaging, in particular plastic; its sorting and reprocessing; and use of recycled content in new packaging. This is the crucial decision for environment ministers when they meet within the next 2 months. After their last meet in December, they said they wanted to reform packaging regulation – NOW is the time. We have launched the Don’t Go Soft on Plastics Campaign to maintain the pressure over coming months. If the states and territories are serious about achieving a circular economy (ie, it’s not all fluff in glossy documents and websites) – we can make a big contribution with diverting the millions of tonnes of plastic packaging currently sent to landfill and dumped as litter, every year. You can help by sending a message to the Federal Environment Minister, Tanya Plibersek and urge her to take immediate action. Finally on a brighter note, Victoria and Tasmania are due to announce the chosen operators of their Container Refund Schemes. By the end of 2023, Australia will be fully covered by CRS – the first continent to be so. Despite the trenchant opposition of the beverage industry, the community won. We can do the same with plastic. So let's keep campaigning. Jeff Angel |
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We would not have been able to do all this work without you and your support by making a donation, signing a petition, sharing our social media posts and sending us words of encouragement. We still have much work to do this year and we hope you will continue to help us. |
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Please donate so we can continue our fight against plastic pollution. | ||||||||||||||||||||||