2016-04-21
The Senate Inquiry’s report into The Threat of Marine Plastic Pollution in Australia, released today, is the clearest statement yet about the urgent need for Victoria to ban plastic bags and microbeads, and to introduce a Container Deposit Scheme.
Nina Springle, Greens’ spokesperson for waste reduction, said there is no longer any excuse for Victoria to avoid addressing this state’s huge marine plastics problem.
“The Senate report into marine plastic pollution states the magnitude of the threat in very clear terms,” Ms Springle said. “Victoria is lagging behind the rest of Australia in its refusal to deal with the ever-growing threat to the marine environment posed by plastic bags, plastic microbeads and plastic containers. “The Victorian government must ban plastic bags and microbeads, and it must introduce a Container Deposit Scheme as a matter of urgency.
“This tripartisan report confirms that plastic bag bans and Container Deposit Schemes work, despite what the Victorian government says. “If the government doesn’t introduce legislation, the Greens will.”
Associate Professor Mark Osborn of RMIT University School of Science, which is investigating the impacts of plastic pollution around Australian and Victorian coastlines, said: “Globally, over 15 trillion pieces of plastic, weighing at least 93,000 tonnes, have entered the world’s oceans to date.
“Across Greater Melbourne, over 300 stormwater drains transport plastic pollution into our waterways and into Port Phillip Bay.“Plastic pollution serves as a sponge for other chemical pollutants and also microorganisms that can then cause physical, chemical and potentially microbial threats to aquatic animals that mistakenly ingest these plastics,” Associate Professor Osborn said.