As of Sept. 1, South Australia has banned plastic carrier and barrier bags, single-use plastic beverage cups, expanded polystyrene (EPS) food and drink containers, plastic confetti, plastic balloon sticks, and food bag tags.
That means that all six Australian states and two territories now have plastic bag bans in place. The Northern territory introduced a ban on lightweight plastic bags less than 35 microns thick in September 2011; Tasmania in November 2013; Victoria in November 2019; New South Wales in June 2022; Western Australia in July 2022; Queensland in September 2023; Australian capital territory in January 2024; and finally South Australia in September 2024.
South Australia’s ban on the above items is part of a wider policy introduced in 2020, which has since banned single-use plastic straws; cutlery, stirrers, EPS cups, bowls, plates, and clamshell containers; plastic cotton buds; single-use plastic bowls and plates; and plastic pizza savers. The state’s Single-use and Other Plastic Products (Waste Avoidance) Act will also ban plastic fruit stickers, plastic soy sauce containers in the shape of a fish, and pre-packaged and attached products (i.e. products that contain plastic straws or cutlery) in September 2025.
The state does not allow for supply of excess stock of banned items.
Plastic consumption in Australia rose by 116% between 2000 and 2020-21, according to a study by the Australia Institute, an independent public policy think tank based in Canberra. The study shows that Australia has consumed a total of 56.9 million tonnes of plastic since 2000. More than half of this – 31.9 million tonnes – has been disposed of, while just 5.8 million tonnes have been recovered. That means that only about 15% of all plastic waste generated over the last 20 years has been recovered through recycling, composting, or energy recovery.
The Australian government has been criticised for its ‘inefficient’ handling of plastic waste. It introduced national targets for packaging in 2018 in an industry-led scheme that does not impose penalties for failures. It requires 70% of plastic packaging to be recycled or composted by 2025. Australia will not reach the target, with only 18% of plastic packaging being recycled in 2023. Groups have called for the introduction of a plastic tax and Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) scheme in response.
The introduction of bans across Australia’s states and territories aims to avoid waste and shift to reusable or recycled options. The new laws also require packaging to be designed to be recovered, reused, recycled, and reprocessed safely in line with circular economy principles.