Bag ban: Labor’s waste plan to outlaw single-use plastics

Bill Shorten will work towards banning all single-use plastic products if he becomes prime minister.

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten tours the "Repurpose It" recycling facility in Epping, Melbourne, yesterday. Picture: AAP

Bill Shorten will work towards banning all single-use plastic products if he becomes prime minister — including straws, coffee cup lids, plastic cutlery and cotton buds — after yesterday unveiling a waste plan that includes outlawing single-use plastic bags.

The Opposition Leader said he was “open” about adopting the EU’s ban on all single-use plastics, which was passed through its parliament last week and will be effective from 2021. But the Labor leader said the proposal needed more examination to ensure there were no unintended consequences.

“Quadriplegics might need plastic straws to consume liquids,” Mr Shorten said.

“We’ve got the goal of wanting to remove single-use plastic but we’ve also got to be careful that there are (not) particular groups, or particular examples, that we haven’t thought of and that there’s (not) unintended consequences.”

Environment Minister Melissa Price and state environment ministers endorsed a “target” last year for all Australian packaging to be recyclable, compostable or reusable by 2025, after China stopped taking Australian rubbish.

Mr Shorten said a future Labor government would enforce a national ban on single-use plastic bags by 2021, which would effectively bring NSW in line with the rest of Australia.

NSW became the lone state to allow lightweight plastic bags after Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews outlawed the product in the lead-up to the Northcote by-election in 2017, which Labor lost to the Greens.

Shoppers in Australia’s biggest state already cannot access single-use plastic bags at Woolworths and Coles, after the major retailers stopped issuing them last year.

Ms Price slammed Labor’s move as “regulation for regulation’s sake”. “Under the Coalition government, seven states and territories have either banned single-use plastic bags or have committed to doing so,’’ she said. “All three major supermarkets have phased them out. What is important are outcomes, which is what we have been focused on and are achieving.”

Australian Retailers Association executive director Russell Zimmerman said some smaller retailers would be impacted by Labor’s policy.

“There will be a few smaller, independent retailers this will effect. But the vast majority of retailers are accepting the fact that there is a move to do the right thing by the environment,” Mr Zimmerman said.