The Australian Marine Conservation Society (AMCS) has welcomed the announcement by state and territory environment ministers to phase out killer single-use plastics in Australia by 2025.
Eight types of the most dangerous plastic waste for marine wildlife, including plastic cutlery, straws, lightweight plastic bags, polystyrene food containers and consumer good packaging, plastic misleadingly labelled as degradable and microbeads in personal care products, are covered in the phase out.
Darren Kindleysides, CEO of AMCS said: “This is welcome progress on these killer plastics and will help to ease the pressure on our marine wildlife.
“AMCS has been calling for national consistency and agreement on the bans of dangerous single use plastics to give businesses certainty and ease consumer confusion.”
However, the industry targets remain voluntary and Mr Kindleysides said only mandatory national bans on single-use plastics, backed by legislation would help to ensure the ambition of the announcement is met across all jurisdictions.
“We continue to work with environment ministers across all states and territories on the roll out and make up of single-use plastics bans. Progress is being made and every step on the way to ensuring that less seabirds, fish and marine animals die or are injured by plastics in our oceans is welcome.”
