Page 3400 - Week 09 - Wednesday, 22 August 2018
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plastic going to landfill before the ban and in October 2013 about 114 tonnes sent to landfill.
When you go into any store, be it a chemist, a supermarket or a clothing store, you are given, or sold in most instances, a plastic bag. At the supermarket, it is particularly noticeable that if you buy fruit or vegetables you have thin plastic bags to put those loose fruits and vegetables in. You then go to the checkout, and if you have not remembered to bring a plastic bag the supermarket will happily sell you another one. The recent actions by Coles and Woolworths to ban plastic bags was not well regarded and was seen widely as less an environmental benefit and more a profit-making exercise. I doubt whether it has resulted in fewer plastic bags in circulation.
It is because of this observed frequency of plastic bags in circulation that, since my election to the Assembly, I have asked in the annual reports and estimates hearings about evidence of the plastic bag ban success. While there were surveys in 2014, there has been nothing since, as Ms Orr’s motion reflects. The Commissioner for Sustainability and the Environment has repeatedly had little or nothing to say about it. We know that there has been a reduction in plastic bags to landfill, or last time we checked there was, but that was about three or four years ago. We know that heavy-duty plastic bags are still the most commonly seen carrier for foods from supermarkets and clothing stores. And we know that, despite what Canberrans believe, we still throw out a significant amount of plastic.
So how much has really been achieved? That same Canberra Times article in November 2014 quoted Mr Rattenbury—speaking as a Greens Assembly member; sometimes I get confused—calling for an extension of the ban so that only compostable plastic bags or reusable plastic bags would be allowed. He pointed out that the thicker plastic bags remain as pollution for thousands of years. That was in 2014. Today those thicker plastic bags are the ones now so popular in retail outlets.
What tracking have we done of them? We know that little research has been undertaken to understand what might have changed in light of those bags being banned. I know that earlier Mr Rattenbury mentioned that he is, obviously, also looking forward to the commissioner’s review of our plastic bag ban, a review that I must confirm is one that is being undertaken under his direction, yet even today there is no indication of when we will see the outcomes of this elusive review.
The other part of Ms Orr’s motion refers to the ACT waste management strategy. This was first raised by former minister Simon Corbell in 2011. Like so many other grand announcements that are the hallmark of this government, we have the big announcement with warm and fuzzy ideals—in this case, less waste generated, full resource recovery, a clean environment and a carbon-neutral waste sector—and then almost nothing. That was seven years ago.
A long, protracted study was undertaken. Over the years many questions were asked as to progress with the strategy, including regular questions from the ACT conservation council. Finally, in early May this year, the results were published and a management plan finally released. This is the Roadmap to improved resource
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