- Australia uses a record 80,000 tonnes of plastic a week – the equivalent weight of one-and-a-half Sydney Harbour Bridges
- Australia generates 1.2 million tonnes of plastic packaging waste every year – about 38kg every second
- State bans are working, but other plastic bag use is still on the rise
- Albanese Govt has backflipped on promised strong national packaging laws
Australia’s plastic consumption continues to rise to record levels despite its devastating impact on the environment and our ocean, the Australian Marine Conservation Society said after new data was released. Australia set an unwanted record of using 4,189,600 tonnes of plastic products and packaging in 2024-25, according to the latest Australian plastics flows and fates report, surpassing the previous high set during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The report tracks how much plastic Australia uses, recycles and sends to landfill, but not how much ends up polluting the environment. AMCS is calling for future reports, now released annually, to include data on plastic pollution – as was previously reported in the 2019-20 plastic flows report.
AMCS Plastics Campaigns Manager Cip Hamilton (she/her) said: “If you left the tap on and flooded the bathroom, the first thing you’d do is try to cut the water supply. Instead, the government’s approach to managing plastic is to just keep mopping while the tap gets turned up and up.
“Australia now uses a staggering 4.2 million tonnes of plastic every year. That’s about 80,000 tonnes every week, the equivalent weight of one-and-a-half Sydney Harbour Bridges. Australia creates 1.2 million tonnes of plastic packaging waste every year – about 38kg every second. The only way to end plastic pollution is to cut back on how much plastic is generated.
“The federal and state environment ministers all agreed packaging reform was needed in 2022, again in 2023, and again last Friday. Ministers can agree and agree all they like, but agreement is not stopping a single piece of plastic from reaching our ocean. We need action.
“Some problematic single-use items such as lightweight plastic shopping bags have declined following state bans, but the use of thicker plastic shopping bags and plastic produce bags has shot up. State and territory bans have been a great start and can work, but item-by-item bans will always be one step behind, playing endless whack-a-mole against a rising tide of plastic overproduction. This is precisely why we need strong national packaging laws that mandate reductions, set design standards and make companies responsible for the packaging they use.
“This week the federal Environment Minister Murray Watt urged Australians to avoid single-use products, but it’s almost impossible without regulatory change from the government. For our Unpackit packaging awards, we received hundreds of nominations from people who have had a gutful of packaging they simply can’t avoid – from avocados in plastic netting to dumbbells individually wrapped in plastic. Right now it costs households more to buy fruit and vegetables that are not wrapped in packaging. You can’t shop your way out of a problem the government refuses to regulate.
“Yet earlier this month, the Albanese Government walked away from its own commitment to deliver mandatory national packaging laws. This backflip makes no sense. For the health of our ocean, and ourselves, the Albanese Government must step back up and deliver the strong national packaging laws that Australia desperately needs.
“Our homes, our waterways, our beaches, and our ocean are drowning under a flood of plastic. Plastic entangles, starves, smothers and poisons marine life. Across Australia, sea turtle hatchlings have hundreds of pieces of plastic in their guts, seals and dolphins are being strangled, and our beloved corals are being suffocated. On a remote Australian island, seabird chicks that are just weeks old are so full of plastic that researchers can hear their stomachs crunch. Once in the ocean, plastic doesn’t disappear. It breaks up into smaller and smaller pieces that spread through the ocean and across our coastlines.”
