‘Single use plastic ban’ – A cautionary tale

In many Australian States there will be a ban on the commercial use of many single use plastic items and packaging coming in very soon. 

In WA for example, the bans have been fast tracked by 4 years to keep up with community expectations. 

• Stage One - now to be completed by December 31, 2021 - includes plastic plates, bowls, cups, cutlery, stirrers, straws, thick plastic bags, polystyrene food containers, and helium balloon releases; and

• Stage Two - now to be completed by the end of 2022 - includes plastic barrier/produce bags, cotton buds with plastic shafts, polystyrene packaging, microbeads and oxo-degradable plastics. Takeaway coffee cups and lids with single-use plastic materials have also been added to the Plan for Plastics and will be phased out in stage two. Consumers and businesses will be able to use alternative environmentally friendly takeaway cups and lids (Media Release 13/6/21 WA)

Fantastic news of course, but the intent of this good news will be diluted if we only replace the plastic items by more single use materials such as compostable plastics and paper products.  

The enemy of good waste management is ‘convenience’. Take the family outing- busy parent packs the snacks and box drinks (all plastic wrapped), and buys an ice-cream treat (plastic wrapped) with a take-away coffee (cardboard disposable) all with as much good intent as possible. 

The point here is not judgement on the purchase as much as the difficulty to do otherwise. And now we may add another layer called complacency whereby if we are assured our packaging is not plastic we will buy our takeaway items with ease and without thought to try and actually reduce the amount of disposable material needing to be recycled or composted.

Let’s take this moment in legislative change to go further to see how we improve our reduction too- maybe take a bigger reusable cup to store food leftovers from a dine-in meal, store a paper bag in your pocket for that banana skin snack, explore reusable bag options for loose produce options etc. There are many small ways we can kick off a habit change. 

We only have to do it 20 times for our behaviour to change, plus we never know who is watching and seeing how easy this change can be. Tell us your ideas.