'About bloody time': NSW eyes plastic bag ban amid recycling crack down
Single-use plastic bags could be banned in NSW within 18 months if a state government discussion paper is acted upon.
The paper released on Sunday calls for the phasing out of single-use plastic bags in NSW, as well as tripling the proportion of plastic recycled within 10 years and reducing plastic litter by a quarter.
Premier Gladys Berejiklian on Sunday said the government would seek to legislate the bag ban by the end of the year and give business six months' notice before the ban comes into effect.
NSW is the only Australian state to not yet ban single-use plastic bags, while retail giants Coles and Woolworths have already banned the bags.
South Australia became the first territory in Australia to ban the single-use plastic bags in 2009, the ACT and Northern Territory banned them both in 2011.
Tasmania followed suit in 2013, as did Queensland and Western Australia in 2018 and Victoria in November 2019.
The discussion paper will be open for public feedback for two months.
“We always want to make sure people aren't taken by surprise and have time to have their say and we're looking forward to moving forward after the consultation period,” Ms Berejiklian told reporters.
“We know other states have already done,” she acknowledged.
Ms Berejiklian said the plastics review follows the government's late-2017 enactment of a "return and earn" container deposit scheme.
NSW Minister for Energy and Environment Matt Kean who was with Ms Berejiklian when she made the announcement said he was “really excited to embark on a new direction on plastics”, while tweeting out the link to the survey.
Meanwhile some on social media, including opposition politicians, wondered why NSW has taken so long to make the move.
“I think it’s about bloody time,” NSW Member for Port Stephens Kate Washington said in response to Mr Kean.
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