The Commonwealth Packaging Reforms are a once in a generation opportunity and the Boomerang Alliance has called for the establishment of an Extended Producer Responsibility scheme for packaging, augmented with mandatory targets for the reduction, reuse, composting and recycling of all packaging.
An effective EPR or product stewardship scheme must make producers responsible for the whole of the lifecycle of their products-from design, to use, collection, recovery and return to secondary markets.
‘‘Any EPR or product stewardship scheme must also be designed to raise fees that are sufficient to cover the full cost of recovery,’ said Toby Hutcheon, National Campaign Manager of the Alliance of 55 NGOs.
‘‘Having producers cover costs is the most effective way to achieve a genuine circular economy approach to packaging, that can eliminate waste and litter.’’
Read more: Boomerang Alliance releases national plan for soft plastics
The Boomerang Alliance is also calling for urgent action on soft plastics. Virtually none of the estimated 155,000 tonnes of soft plastics sold to households gets recycled.
‘‘Soft plastic recycling collections and reprocessing in the circular economy needs to be fixed, and we are proposing the establishment an industry-funded scheme be established before 2026. We oppose any go-slow moves by government. The public want this problem solved,’’ said Hutcheon.
‘‘Many supermarket customers are currently hoarding their soft plastics waiting for a new collection services. We are also calling on the supermarkets to arrange Return-To-Store days so that these plastics can be collected for recycling now.’’
Under the Boomerang Alliance model:
- Producers will bear full responsibility and cover the costs for their products through their entire lifecycle.
- Mandatory targets for packaging will be set including for reduction (20 per cent by 2030), reuse (30 per cent by 2030) composting/recycling (70 per cent by 2026) and recycled content -with focus on domestic product (50 per cent by 2026).
- Packaging Standards for reusable, compostable or recyclable packaging must include requirements that these items are recovered in practice and at scale.