- Global initiatives to reduce plastic pollution
- There is recognition across the world that the impact of plastic pollution, particularly in the marine environment, is significant. The United Nations Environment Programme states:
Lightweight, durable, and inexpensive, plastic has many valuable uses in our daily life. However, our current levels of plastic production, usage, and disposal pose serious threats to our health, environment, and economy. Due to our resource-inefficient, linear economy of plastic, characterized by a take-make-waste approach, plastic pollution has become one of the most pressing environmental issues we face today.
5.2The inquiry sought to explore global initiatives to reduce plastic pollution. This chapter explores policies, programs and projects taking place internationally, including international conventions, the Plastics Pact Network, and academic and scientific studies. The Committee also heard evidence about coordinated global action on plastic pollution through a treaty.
5.3International Extended Producer Responsibility schemes and tax levies were discussed in Chapter 3 of this report.
Global policies and initiatives on plastic pollution
5.4Some submitters to the inquiry suggested that Australia’s plastics policies should align more closely with other countries. Flinders University acknowledged the value of the National Plastics Plan but contended that the targets should be brought forward to reflect those of the European Union and France. In 2020, French legislation was adopted that aimed to eliminate waste and pollution from the design stage and move from a linear economic model to a circular economic model.
5.5The Minderoo Foundation encouraged the Australian Government to connect with countries that have implemented initiatives and build on the policies that could be suitable in the Australian context. It highlighted policies of the European Union which have single-use plastic bans which are more extensive and include ‘fishing gear containing plastics’.
5.6CSIRO reflected on how waste management strategies can vary depending on geography and distance, explaining that what works in a highly densely populated country may not work for Australia.
5.7The Fisheries Research and Development Corporation outlined an approach taken in Norway, which involves integrated ecosystem-based ocean management ‘holistically instead of by individual sectors and activities’. The Norwegian Parliament, the Storting, has a role in considering and approving integrated, ecosystem-based management plans for all Norwegian sea areas. These plans bring together:
…research institutes and agencies from various sectors to make ocean management plans that rely on regular, comprehensive, demanding scientific monitoring.
5.8The Australian Marine Conservation Society (AMCS) noted that the European Union has made progress in the implementation of a ‘strong circular economy strategy’ and encouraged the Australian Government to examine this when considering any future national circular economy strategy.
5.9Submitters to the inquiry provided evidence of other programs and projects taking place internationally that sought to address the issue of plastic pollution. The Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (the Department) provided details of international and local conventions to control the management and movement of controlled waste, some of which include plastic pollution such as the Basel Convention and the Stockholm Convention.
5.10The Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal is a multilateral agreement which Australia ratified in 1992. The objective is to protect human health and the environment against the harmful effects of hazardous wastes. The Department noted that the Basel Convention has some work streams ‘which are aimed at addressing increasing levels of marine plastic and microplastic pollution’.
5.11The Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants has the objective of protecting human health and the environment from the adverse effects of persistent organic pollutants. The Department noted that the Stockholm Convention lists several persistent organic pollutants which were used or continue to be used in plastic production or are by-products of production or are classified as plastics.
5.12The Department explained that both these conventions have acted on a number of substances however there are many chemicals remaining which are not subject to ‘adequate control at the international level’ and that more action could contribute to the reduction in risks associated with the use of plastics.
5.13The Department explained that there was a convention for the movement of controlled waste within the Pacific region, the Waigani Convention. The Department said that a working group is currently developing a proposal to introduce ‘enhanced controls for plastic waste’ which were agreed by parties to the Basel Convention, into the Waigani Convention.
5.14Other global initiatives cited by the UN Global Compact Network Australia include:
- Pacific Ocean Litter Project
- New Plastics Economy Global Commitment – developed by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation and the United Nations (UN) Environment programme, which brings together over 500 signatories, including Australia in 2022, to build a circular economy for plastics
- Ocean Conservation Pledge – an international movement calling on countries to commit to conserve or protect at least 30 per cent of ocean waters under their national jurisdiction. The Australian Government endorsed this pledge in November 2022.
- The Minderoo Foundation cited the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development Report Global Plastics Outlook – Economic Drivers, Environmental Impacts and Policy Options which highlights five policy methods that could be used to reduce the leakage of plastic into the environment. The methods are:
1Restrain demand for plastics
2Designing for circularity of plastics
3Enhancing recycling practices
4Close leakage pathways
5Clean up plastics from the environment.
The Plastics Pact Network
5.16Several submitters referred to the Plastics Pact Network and participation by stakeholders from Australia. The Plastics Pact Network was convened by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation and WRAP and connects national and regional initiatives around the world ‘to implement solutions toward a circular economy for plastics.’
5.17The Australian, New Zealand and Pacific Islands (ANZPAC) Plastics Pact, launched in May 2021, is part of the Plastics Pact Network and is delivered by the Australian Packaging Covenant Organisation (APCO). ANZPAC Plastics Pact members consist of brand owners, retailing and manufacturing sectors and supporters from government, academic, community groups and NGO sectors.
5.18The ANZPAC Plastics Pact sets ‘ambitious and concrete’ regional plastic targets to be achieved by 2025:
- Eliminate unnecessary and problematic plastic packaging through redesign, innovation and alternative (reuse) delivery models
- 100% of plastic packaging to be reusable, recyclable or compostable by 2025
- Increase plastic packaging collected and effectively recycled by at least 25% for each geography within the ANZPAC region
- Average of 25% recycled content in plastic packaging across the region.
- The Australian Beverages Council recognised the value of the ANZPAC Plastics Pact in connecting stakeholders to establish sound plastic management and knowledge sharing in the region. It said that:
Regional knowledge sharing and connection mechanisms will be crucial to finding recycling markets for material in countries without their own infrastructure. These mechanisms can also ensure that when countries do develop their infrastructure, they can lessen risk and create more successful and efficient systems.
5.20Clean Up Australia noted that it was an active supporter of the ANZPAC Plastics Pact and acknowledged that ANZPAC brought together ‘links of the supply chain to encourage collaboration and co-operations to meet defined targets with measurable milestones’.
5.21AMCS acknowledged that while ‘the ANZPAC Plastics Pact has been a vital forum for industry collaboration and produced good guidance for business plastics reduction’, it said that ‘actual reductions in plastic packaging have been minimal’.
5.22AMCS added that according to data from the Ellen Macarthur Foundation Global Commitment in 2022:
…on net the world’s companies are failing to achieve voluntary targets. While the use of recycled plastics has increased slightly, most signatory companies will fail to meet commitments to achieve 100% of all packaging being reusable, recyclable or compostable by 2025 (the current rate is 65%).
Academic and scientific collaboration
5.23The Committee heard that there is already a body of knowledge about plastic pollution and related policies. WWF-Australia referenced the Plastic Policy Inventory at the Nicholas Institute at Duke University in the United States of America which consists of a searchable database of over 500 international, national and subnational policies dating from 2000 to January 2023. The Nicholas Institute also hosts a Plastic Policy study library which provides access to the science and data on plastic policy effectiveness.
5.24WWF-Australia also referenced the work of the Alfred Wegener Institute, as commissioned by WWF-Germany, in undertaking a review of the impact of plastic pollution on biodiversity. This review found that more than 2,000 species have faced plastic pollution in their natural habitats and there has been increasing impact of harm.
5.25CSIRO provided detail of some of the projects it engages in with international partners:
- Collaboration on global plastic in Australia – quantifying flows of plastic and other debris from land-based sources to the ocean using field sampling and mathematical modelling. CSIRO said it collaborated with partner organisations for the first phase of this project from China, South Africa, South Korea, Peru, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Taiwan, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, United States of America, Kenya and the Seychelles.
- Collaboration with the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme and Sustainable Coastlines PNG to undertake marine litter transects around Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea.
- CSIRO has partnered with the Coordinating Body on the Seas of East Asia to provide technical assistance and capacity building towards a harmonised marine litter monitoring programme.
- CSIRO and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade are working to design and deliver Plastics Innovation Hub programs across the Southeast Asia region to strengthen research collaborations and identify new approaches to tackling plastic waste.
A treaty to end plastic pollution
5.26There was widespread recognition and welcoming of the efforts to pursue coordinated global action on plastic pollution through a treaty. The Department noted:
In March 2022, the fifth session of the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA) agreed to establish an Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC) with an ambitious mandate to develop a new international legally binding instrument on plastic pollution, including in the marine environment by the end of 2024.
5.27The Department is leading the Australian Government negotiations with the support of other government agencies. The Department also noted that the Australian Government joined the High Ambition Coalition (HAC) to End Plastic Pollution by 2040 in November 2022. The HAC is a group of likeminded countries that are seeking to end plastic pollution through a global approach. The HAC is defined by three goals:
- Restrain plastic consumption and production to sustainable levels
- Enable a circular economy for plastics that protects the environment and human health
- Achieve environmentally sound management and recycling of plastic waste.
- The Department indicated that Australia will, as a member of the HAC, call for a treaty that ‘supports a safe circular economy, and eliminates problematic and unnecessary plastics, as well as harmful chemicals from product supply chains’.
- WWF-Australia reflected that the decision of UN member states to start negotiations on a treaty to end plastic pollution was recognition of there being uneven regulation of plastic production, trade and pollution globally. It explained:
International instruments that do exist are mostly voluntary and focus on maritime based sources; there are ‘no global, binding, specific, and measurable targets’ to reduce plastic pollution.
5.30WWF-Australia also noted that the Pacific Regional Declaration on the Prevention of Marine Litter and Plastic Pollution and its Impacts indicated:
Very strong support across the region for a comprehensive and ambitious plastic treaty…particularly for upstream measures that address production, standards, labelling and trade.
5.31AMCS outlined an urgent need for a ‘unified global approach to addressing plastic pollution, that includes binding, specific, and measurable targets to reduce plastic pollution and phase out virgin plastics’. It, like WWF-Australia, noted that previous global initiatives and agreements on plastic pollution and fishing waste have been mostly voluntary and have had a focus on maritime sources of pollution.
5.32Plastic Oceans Australasia indicated that it has been engaging with the Australian Government on the global plastics treaty and welcomed the announcement that Australia had joined the HAC.
5.33The Fisheries Research and Development Corporation noted legally binding provisions in any future treaty and the importance of supporting these ambitions with investment:
…the new Global Treaty on Plastics Pollution has legally binding provisions and obligations to prevent and remediate plastic pollution and its toxic impacts. It will be critical to support this ambition with investment to aid rapid transition in response to binding targets.
5.34Chemistry Australia contended that the treaty should have ‘workable and accountable systems in place’ to manage pollution that impacts Australia but is not generated by Australia.
5.35Accord highlighted that the treaty should provide harmonised definitions and reporting for plastic packaging that use existing international standards and definitions.
5.36Plastic Oceans Australasia suggested that any treaty should consider how Extended Producer Responsibility schemes could be applied across international borders, noting the large volumes of plastic packaging of goods involved in cross-border trade.
5.37Council of Capital City Lord Mayors (CCCLM) noted that there was a ‘lack of representation of our Asia-Pacific neighbours’ and encouraged Australia to take a leadership role in facilitating their inclusion in the process. This was echoed by the Boomerang Alliance and Total Environment Centre, which called for Australia to take a leadership role in the Asia/Pacific region to encourage nations in this region to sign the treaty.
5.38The University of Adelaide also called for Australia to become a leader in plastic pollution management across the Pacific region, to ‘assist with mitigation strategies for our neighbouring countries’.
5.39AMCS called for the Australian Government to support the attendance of traditional owners from the Gulf of Carpentaria at the International Negotiating Committee meetings for the agreement.
5.40The Northern Territory Government were supportive of the Australian Government’s leadership role in negotiating this treaty but contended that there should be consideration given to further regional action sooner than when the treaty would come into effect.
5.41The School of Biological Sciences at the University of Adelaide supported efforts already made by the Australian Government to pursue coordinated global action on marine plastics and recommended that this remains a continued priority.
Committee Comment
5.42Plastic pollution in our oceans and waterways is a global issue. Ocean currents can move plastic waste across vast distances, leading to pollution far from its point of origin. This is evident in cases where plastic pollution found on remote beaches, such as Christmas Island and the Cocos (Keeling) Islands, is believed to have originated from neighbouring countries like Indonesia.
5.43There is a significant need for global cooperation to effectively address plastic pollution. The Committee believes that international action is required to implement strategies aimed at reducing plastic production and use, promoting plastic reuse and improving recycling efforts. The Committee is pleased to see knowledge sharing and connection between countries occurring through initiatives such as the ANZPAC Plastics Pact.
5.44The Committee received a range of evidence on international initiatives, including examples of countries that are more advanced in plastic pollution management than Australia. In this regard, the Committee believes that Australia should consider developments that have already taken place in countries such as the United Kingdom and France to inform Australia’s domestic plastic pollution policies going forward.
5.45The Committee recommends that the Australian Government through the Department of Climate Change, Energy, Environment and Water, monitor and commission research on overseas initiatives to reduce and combat plastic pollution with a view to applying lessons learnt. Outcomes of the research should be reported annually to Parliament, through the Department’s Annual Report.
5.46The Committee welcomes the development of an international legally binding instrument on plastic pollution and supports Australia’s participation in the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee. The Committee also welcomes Australia’s participation in the High Ambition Coalition (HAC) to End Plastic Pollution by 2040.
5.47The Committee encourages the Australian Government to continue its consultation around the treaty on plastic pollution and ensure that organisations from a range of sectors continue to be involved in this process.
5.48Given the impact of overseas plastic pollution on some of Australia’s remote beaches such as on the Gulf of Carpentaria, Arnhem Land and the Tiwi Islands as discussed in Chapter 4, the Committee considers that there should be active participation by representatives of First Nations in treaty negotiations.
5.49The Committee notes that while some First Nations participation has occurred in past negotiations, it emphasises the importance of including First Nations directly affected by the plastic pollution in these discussions.
5.50The Committee recommends that the Australian Government support the participation of First Nations in the International Negotiating Committee meetings on an international treaty to end plastic pollution.
5.51The Committee considers that Australia should be taking a leadership role in the Asia Pacific region due to the transboundary nature of plastic pollution. As discussed earlier, plastic waste can travel vast distances and affect not only Australia’s remote beaches, but also neighbouring countries in Asia.
5.52In this regard, the Committee sees an opportunity for the Australian Government to facilitate partnerships among Asia Pacific nations in international treaties and agreements aimed at ending plastic pollution. The Committee considers that the participation of smaller nations should be prioritised, particularly those that may not already be engaged in such efforts.
5.53The Committee recommends that the Australian Government provide leadership to the Asia Pacific region in responding to plastic pollution through regional and multilateral mechanisms such as treaties and agreements. The Australian Government should facilitate participation of smaller nations in an international treaty to end plastic pollution.
Mr Tony ZappiaMP
Chair
15 May 2024