Councillor Nola Firth has submitted to Council the following Notice of Motion:
In Tweed shire we are currently collectively dumping 320 tons of soft plastic into landfill per year. There is considerable community concern on this issue. Single use soft plastic is recognised as a serious waste of our precious finite resources and as a killer of wildlife on land and in our rivers and seas. This is of particular concern in our biodiverse shire where we have the most threatened species in Australia.
Federal regulation is urgently needed to address this situation. The report (also on this agenda) on soft plastics recycling indicates the difficulty we as a regional council have in accessing soft plastics recycling. Even within cities it is not yet available for everyone. The primary cause is lack of created demand for recycled plastic despite its problematic plenitude and the willingness of community to recycle it. There is an urgent need for government action to achieve mandatory industry change, recycling support and community education.
Councillor Firth moves that Council write to the Federal Minister for the Environment and Water, the Minister for the Environment (NSW), Minister for Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (NSW), local state members, local federal member, the Australian Packaging Covenant Organisation and Soft Plastics Stewardship Australia:
- Noting:
a. that each year approximately 320 tons of soft plastic are dumped into landfill in our
shire; and
b. the strong concern by many in our community at the difficulty of accessing and using
soft plastic recycling despite the waste of precious finite resources and the danger,
especially to our endangered wildlife species, when it is dumped into landfill - Requesting the Government to:
a. increase producer responsibilities for soft plastics by mandating a percentage use of
recycled plastic in new plastic products, mandating design standards on packaging and
reforms/bans on certain types of packaging (e.g. plastic fish containers for soy sauce),
requiring clear, consistent labelling, and establish mandatory soft plastic recycling
targets;
b. place a levy on production and consumption of polymer plastic made from fossil fuel
and particularly for single use and packaging and use of the levy to support
establishment of plastic recycling research and facilities; and
c. fund soft plastics collection recycling programs including financial support for
councils undertaking collection for soft plastic recycling.
MANAGEMENT COMMENTS:
The 2024 kerbside bin audit (urban) indicated that 2% of materials in the residual waste stream (red general waste bin) are soft plastics materials. Other plastics and HDPE plastics make up a further 3% and 2% respectively. Based on the annual collection data of 16,000 tonnes in the residual waste stream, it is estimated that approximately 320 tonnes of soft plastic film are sent to landfill in the Tweed each year.
While some consumer-based programs exist in the marketplace (such as Curby and Recycle Smart), these programs are cost-prohibitive for the Tweed to participate in, due to the regional location of our Council and associated transport and logistics costs, and the costs involved in managing programs or modifying existing waste collections contracts. Based on investigation with other councils running similar programs, and capacity of the programs, an uptake of approximately 10% could be expected, which still leaves a large percentage of soft plastics going to landfill.
Further, current supermarket trials in South East Queensland are yet to reach the Tweed, making this option unavailable to residents in the short term. This is partly to ensure the program can meet demands for processing and recycling soft plastics and partly due to costs of funding of the scheme.
Supermarket trials and kerbside collection and processing system trials are currently being funded by a voluntary stewardship scheme, Soft Plastics Stewardship Australia. Brand owners/manufacturers pay levies based on the amount of consumer soft plastic they put into the Australian market.
However there is currently limited demand for products made from recycled plastic materials, which currently include items such as food-grade soft plastic packaging (chemical recycling) or garbage bags, fence posts, asphalt and concrete additives (mechanical recycling). Research and development into effective circular solutions is ongoing. The CEO of Soft Plastics Stewardship Australia suggests that mandatory standards for recycled materials in products would help to stimulate demand for recycled materials. It is currently cheaper to make new plastics from petrochemicals, rather than recycled materials.
The Australian Local Government Association’s submission to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission on Soft Plastic Stewardship raised pertinent points regarding the viability of programs for Councils in regional areas and Tweed Shire Council echoes these sentiments.
Budget/Long Term Financial Plan:
Currently available programs have financial implications for the Tweed in participating or operating schemes, due to required modifications to collections contracts, transport and logistics costs from a regional location.
