Media release – Tasmanian Greens, 3 March 2024
Greens push to ban single-use plastic
It shouldn’t be up to citizens to pick up the mess that big packaging companies make, but every Clean Up Australia Day that’s exactly what people are left doing because of governments failure to tackle the waste crisis.
In 2021 state and territory governments entered into an agreement to phase out several types of single-use plastics, including plastic utensils and stirrers, plastic straws, and polystyrene packaging.
Despite this, other than a ban on lightweight plastic bags in 2013 and individual council-level bans in Hobart and Launceston, Tasmania is the only jurisdiction without a ban, or time frame for a ban, on single-use plastics.
In the balance of power after the state election the Greens will fight for Tasmania to join the rest of the country in implementing a strong, single-use plastics ban.
Quotes attributable to Greens candidate for Lyons, Tabatha Badger:
“Plastic pollution is no longer some faraway problem floating out in a distant ocean. Toxic and dangerous plastics are now found everywhere, and people are increasingly clued into the fact most plastic used today has been cooked up in a lab from oil-based chemicals.
“In fact, plastic production is set to be a major driver of oil extraction over coming decades, increasing our reliance on fossil fuels at a time when an urgent transition to renewables is needed.
“Waste is a design flaw. It shouldn’t exist. Yet for too long successive governments have laid the responsibility for change at the feet of public consumers – but to change the way we tackle waste, we need to change the system that perpetuates it.
“It’s 2024 Tasmanians are still waiting for a container deposit scheme that was promised years ago, and Tassie continues to lag behind every other state and territory when it comes to implementing single-use plastic bans. Clearly tackling the waste crisis has not been a priority for our government.
“With the Greens in the balance of power in the next Government, we will fight for Tasmania to join the rest of the country in implementing a strong, single-use plastics ban.”
