The Queensland government is proposing to ban the sale and distribution of some single-use plastic items.
Have your opinion heard by completing the government’s survey or making a longer submission on the Regulatory Impact Statement, by 30 April 2020.
EDO’s submission is here to help you with your submission.
The proposed ban on the sale and distribution of some single-use plastic items includes straws, stirrers, plates and cutlery. The proposed ban on straws will contain exemptions for people who, for healthcare or disability reasons, need to use a straw.
The ban may subsequently be expanded to include plastic cups, takeaway food containers, balloon sticks and heavyweight shopping bags – but those are not part of the current proposal.
Overall, EDO supports the proposed bans, however we recommend that they go further to include other single use plastics, such as plastic cups, takeaway food containers, balloon sticks and heavyweight shopping bags.
The plastics in our local ocean environment are largely generated locally, which means that action we take in Australia to remove plastic waste will have real benefits for our local marine life. Plastic waste that enters our oceans can harm our marine life through ingestion, suffocation or entanglement, can transport invasive species, concentrate toxic pollutants and can break down to add to the already troubling loads of micro-plastics in our oceans – which can accumulate through the food chain. Plastic manufacture is also a source of greenhouse gas emissions.
This ban is a small step but certainly one we support. However, we are concerned about a possible exemption for ‘shelf-ready’ products (such as tuna salad with included plastic cutlery) and believe that the proposed ban could be extended to include other products for which a substitute is available (in particular cotton buds with plastic stems, wet wipes that contain plastic and beverage container lids that aren’t attached to the container).
