Single-use plastics ban

While plastic is a versatile and useful product, it’s increasingly threatening our natural environment. Single-use plastic items are those designed to be used once and then thrown away. They are cheap and convenient, but they pose an enormous threat to our environment.

Plastic packaging and single-use plastic items make up 60% of all litter in NSW. For this reason, the NSW Parliament has passed the Plastic Reduction and Circular Economy Act 2021, which outlines a suite of single-use plastic bans to be rolled out across NSW starting on 1 June 2022. These bans are estimated to prevent nearly 2.7 billion plastic items from entering the coastal, marine and bushland environments of NSW over the next 20 years.

  • From 1 June 2022 lightweight plastic shopping bags will be banned.
  • From 1 November 2022, the following items will be banned:
    • Single use plastic straws, stirrers (with some exception for medical use and those integrated into packaging via a machine e.g. juice box straws).
    • Single use plastic cutlery
    • Single use plastic plates and bowls without spill proof lids.
    • Foodware and cups made from expanded polystyrene (EPS)
    • Single use, plastic cotton buds oRinse off personal care products containing plastic microbeads.

This includes biodegradable plastics, compostable plastic and bioplastics of the same products. Labels on items are not proof of compliance.

These bans apply to any organisation who supplies a prohibited item in NSW for commercial or community purposes including retails, hospitality, manufacturers, suppliers, distributors, wholesalers as well as charitable, sporting, education or community groups. It includes biodegradable plastics, compostable plastics and bioplastics of the same banned products.

Now is the time to move away from single-use altogether!