Time to Start Planning for End to Single-Use Plastic Products

The State Government has sent a strong signal that it intends to take more steps in banning all single-use plastic products.

Hospitality was specifically mentioned by Environment Minister Susan Close at the July release of Green Industries SA’s (GISA) latest public consultation report .

“It is abundantly clear the public wants action on single-use plastic and we will continue to engage with business, including the hospitality sector, about the best way forward,” she said.

“Single-use plastic is part of a linear economy, where we take, make and waste materials. That’s a loss of the energy, water and materials and it’s not the circular economy we want for South Australia.

“The cost to the environment and the massive carbon footprint of singleuse plastic can’t be ignored. If we want to address climate change, we must change what we buy, how it’s packaged and how we recover materials.”

The GISA public consultation report “shows businesses, industry groups and householders want to phase out a range of single-use plastic products”.

The new report - Turning the Tide – calls for single-use plastic products including cups, food containers, bowls and plates to be the next items to be phased out.

Easily replaced items like plastic stemmed cotton buds and confetti will be phased out sooner rather than later, with items like single-use plastic beverage containers and lids requiring further consultation on how quickly phase out can occur.

More than 3,500 South Australians provided their feedback on these items with an overwhelming 97 per cent of respondents agreeing that single-use plastic was a major issue that needed to be addressed.

Also in July, Queensland announced it would ban a range of products including plastic microbeads, polystyrene packing peanuts and plasticstemmed cotton buds by 1 September 2023.

Since starting in 2019, the Plastic Free SA program has helped SA businesses remove more than five million single-use plastic items, including more than 1.5million single-use coffee cups.

The complete list of responses and feedback to government is available at www.replacethewaste.sa.gov.au and www.greenindustries.sa.gov.au

It is abundantly clear the public wants action on singleuse plastic and we will continue to engage with business, including the hospitality sector, about the best way forward.