The Total Environment Centre is releasing the first review of all of Australia’s drink bottle and can 10c refund laws which assesses the performance of each state and territory and examines future challenges. Read the full report.

In an unsurprising but nevertheless disturbing revelation, the Australian Packaging Covenant (APCO) has admitted today the national 2025 recycling and recycled content targets won’t be met. The blame squarely falls on the packaging sector which lacked commitment and investment under the 20 years of voluntary arrangements.

The inclusion of glass wine and spirit bottles in Queensland’s container refund scheme is a significant move on glass recycling that should be mirrored by other states asap.

Ocean bound plastic refers to plastic usually collected from unregulated landfills, dumps or litter collected within 50 kms of the coast. The average person is more likely to conclude it must be plastic litter picked up from the oceans or beaches. It is not. And because it's mixed plastics and very likely contaminated with toxins, it can't be used for food grade products. 

Our colleagues at Tangaroa Blue have lodged a complaint with the ACCC about this matter, and we welcome their action.

Read the full article on ABC News website

The announcement today of the Coordinator and Network Operators (NOs) for Victoria's Container Refund Scheme, marks the end of a very long effort spanning several decades, by community groups who had to battle big drink companies opposed to the introduction of modern drink bottle and can recycling. There are however, challenges ahead that will require close attention by the government.

Today’s release by Coles, Woolworths and Aldi of a soft plastics "Roadmap to Restart" is an admission of failure over the last 5 years and does not inspire confidence the problem will be solved.

Australia's largest soft plastics recycling scheme REDcycle collapsed last November and last week the scheme was declared insolvent by the Supreme court. Soft plastics collected from supermarkets were sent to warehouses where they’ve been stockpiled for months, leaving consumers disappointed and pushing Australia even further from its national packaging target. So, how far are we from that 2025 goal?

The commitment by Coles and Woolworths to manage the REDcycle soft plastic stockpile is hopefully, the start of a journey to recycling the vast bulk of Australia’s 440,000tonnes of the material, the Boomerang Alliance said today.

The Queensland Government has introduced legislation to ban the release of lighter than air balloons. The ban is likely to be put into effect in September 2023.

How often or long do we need to use green bags to make reusable bags actually environmentally friendly and how are they being recycled?

Boomerang Alliance campaigner Birte Moliere spoke with James Valentine on ABC News.