2022-11-28
The Greens call on the Albanese Government to resist siding with multinational plastic packaging companies at the UN Global Plastics Treaty negotiations and instead work towards setting legally binding waste reduction commitments with mandated action targets.
Quotes attributable to Greens spokesperson for waste and recycling, Senator Peter Whish-Wilson:
“Signing up to another well-meaning international pledge isn’t going to end plastic pollution. Instead, we need a legally binding treaty with real consequences for failure.
“The Greens and many Australians will be bitterly disappointed if the Albanese Government caves in to big business and supports a voluntary scheme for global plastic pollution reduction.
“Voluntary waste reduction schemes do not work. The world only needs to look at Australia’s shameful history of voluntary plastic and packaging waste reduction schemes to realise this.
“Voluntary schemes are the reason REDcycle collapsed, and they’re the reason our landfills are overflowing with plastic waste and our oceans are choking on toxic plastic pollution.
“The world is waking up to the fact that it's plastic producers who need to clean up their act and take responsibility for the mess they make, and it’s governments that need to enforce this.
“Leaving waste reduction to big business to sort out is a fool's game but it seems the Albanese Government has been slow to grasp this. It remains an indictment on Australia that our own failing national waste reduction targets are yet to be mandated in law.
“The Greens call on the Albanese Government to resist state capture from big packaging companies and instead work towards achieving legally binding plastic waste reduction targets at the UN Global Plastics Treaty negotiations, which kick off tomorrow.”