Boomerang Alliance Newsletter - March 2023

Posted by on April 06, 2023
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
Director
 

NSW ALP WASTE/RECYCLING PROMISES 

With the new government sworn in NSW, we will be seeking quick action on the ALP's promises.  These follow:

NSW Labor supports a nationally consistent approach to tackling plastic pollution and supports the Federal Government’s recent move to join the High Ambition Coalition to End Plastic Pollution. We will:

  • Review the NSW Plastics Action Plan to see where the removal of single use items can be accelerated.

  • Support circular economy actions for plastics in which plastic products are either reused, recycled, or remanufactured when no longer useful or required for their initial purposes.
 
CAMPAIGN UPDATES
 

MASSIVE FAIL ON PACKAGING TARGETS

For over 20 years the packaging industry have been telling us they will reduce plastic packaging waste and increase recycling. But APCO have now admitted they won't meet these targets. Indeed they will get nowhere near them.

SINGLE-USE PLASTIC PHASE-OUT UPDATE

Since 2021, the Boomerang Alliance has been monitoring state and territory actions on phasing out unnecessary and problematic plastic items. Things are progressing as each state passes legislation but this should be happening with more urgency as some states are slow to act.

CHOOSE TO REUSE

The problem with the 'Choose to Reuse' call is that while it is important that we all take action on reusables, we are not going to change general population habits simply through a focus on ad hoc action. What is needed are the systems that create behaviour change.

PLASTIC FREE PLACES

Our Plastic Free Places (PFP) program has helped businesses across the nation eliminate over 20 MILLION pieces of single-use plastic. With bans continuing to roll out, our program is more relevant than ever!

CDS UPDATE

2023 is the year, Australia will be fully covered by container refund schemes (CRS) resulting in billions of drink containers being recycled every year. Even Coca Cola, which vehemently opposed a CRS are now championing their involvement.
   
 

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.
 
Please donate so we can continue our fight against plastic pollution.
 

 

Orange

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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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