Environmental alliance launches national plan for Australia's soft plastics

Boomerang Alliance is releasing a proposed product stewardship scheme in Australia to mandate action by producers and supermarkets.

Australia's packaging targets must be met by 2025 and the environmental alliance has a set out a three-year action plan.

It includes the redesign of packaging, including reducing plastic and using alternative materials. They also focus on a collection system for all househoulds that is based on special kerbside collections. The alliance demands new sorting technology at receiving facilities with commitments to use that material as recycled content in new packaging and other products.

They say they have no confidence that the current taskforce of the big supermarkets can move at sufficient pace to avoid hundreds of millions more tonnes of soft plastics being landfilled or littered, and commend the federal Environment Minister for threatening to regulate.

The plan lays the costs with producers and supermarkets, as per Australia's current e-waste and container refund schemes.