Australia will phase out polystyrene (PS) foam commonly used to package consumer goods by July 2022 as a part of the national plan to tackle plastic waste.
According to the plan, by December 2022, PS should be absent from containers for food and beverage along with polyvinyl chloride (PVC) packaging labels. Other than that, there is a target to cut plastic pollution from washing machine outflows and from cigarette butts.
A spokesman for the federal environment minister Sussan Ley commented that she hoped the industry to voluntarily go with the deadlines, but if deemed necessary, the government reserved the right to regulate.
Australia has previously announced the targets for 2025, which includes all packaging be reusable, recyclable, and compostable with 70% of plastic packaging be recycled or composted and packaging materials have an average of 50% recycled content.
Many aspects of the plan have been seen as favorable by conservation groups, but the groups also criticized the use of voluntary approaches in reaching such ambitious goals. They demand those targets be mandated.
