Landfill

The burning issue isn’t how much plastic we make or use – it’s how much escapes into the environment. Global efforts such as the UN Plastics Treaty should prioritise building and funding effective containment systems to stop plastic leaking into nature. Actions to reduce plastic production should follow suit.

We should remove taxes on things we want and instead put them on things we don’t want. Tax the things we want less of and remove taxes on things we want more of. This should apply to products, services and... waste.

Almost two years on from a landmark pledge by state and federal environment ministers to take decisive action on packaging waste, Australia is still waiting for meaningful reform.

Single use plastic makes our modern lives easier and often safer. But all too often, it becomes litter.

Packaging recycling in Australia has some way to go. Both in terms of meeting the national 2025 Waste Targets and in terms of reducing the use of dangerous chemicals and composite materials that pollute and hinder recycling. Government intervention was supposed to help. This has not happened yet.

In 2018 we set National Packaging Targets with a 2025 horizon. 2025 is upon us. How have we fared?

Isn’t it amazing that the media can so consistently fail to join the dots on climate change?

All waste, and most recycling, becomes a resource only when money is spent converting it.

Of the 400 landfills (plus) in NSW only 20 are actively supervised as contaminated sites by the EPA.

In contrast to most States, Tasmania could achieve the National Waste Targets by 2030

WA on track to lift recovery rates from 60% to 80% by 2030

In contrast to most States, the Northern Territory has reduced its waste to landfill over the past 15 years.