The Australian Council of Recycling (ACOR) has called on the Australian government to ‘reconsider’ its decision to quietly shelve a 2023 promise to implement national packaging standards to curb plastics waste.
Earlier this month, ABC News reported that the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water had emailed stakeholders, saying the mandatory standards would not proceed in this term of government.
The email reportedly revealed that federal environment minister Murray Watt is pursuing reforms in a way that ‘balances environmental outcomes with the broader needs of the economy, with the government looking closely at its policies to ensure it does not exacerbate cost of living pressures’.
‘The minister has communicated that a new Commonwealth scheme for packaging will not be introduced in this term of government and is now focused on working with state and territory governments on opportunities to improve Australia’s packaging regulations and policies in the nearer term,’ the email reportedly stated.
Eco-plastics in Packaging has contacted Watt for comment.
Packaging waste pledge
The development follows a 2023 pledge by environment ministers to cut packaging waste.
At the time, the government said the rules would encompass mandatory packaging design standards and targets – including for recycled content.
They would also address harmful chemicals in food packaging.
ACOR chief executive Suzanne Toumbourou told Eco-plastics in Packaging that Australia had invested significantly in plastics recycling capacity, but the regulatory and market settings needed to support that investment have not followed.
“Australian recyclers cannot compete on a level playing field with cheaper imported plastics,” she said.
“The decision not to proceed with national packaging reform comes at a time when Australian recycling facilities are already operating at around half their available capacity on average.
“The Australian government should reconsider this decision and commit to a timeframe for delivering the reforms it promised, including recycled-content requirements that create a market for Australian recycled plastics.”
Plastics packaging data
According to Australian government data, 6.84 million tonnes of packaging were placed on the Australian market in 2023-24, with 41 per cent disposed of in landfill.
The country is also said to use more than 1.3m/t of plastics packaging each year – over 1m/t end up in landfill or are littered.
Toumbourou’s comments came after ACOR, the Australian Packaging Covenant Organisation, and the Boomerang Alliance each released a video outlining their shared support for government action and a national Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) pathway for packaging.
Without a clear national pathway, Australia risks falling further behind international progress and delaying the investment needed to improve packaging recovery, strengthen domestic recycling markets and keep valuable materials in circulation, the organisations cautioned.
Elsewhere, the Australian packaging and recycling firm Pact Group has warned that taxpayer-funded recycling plants are collapsing while plastics packaging waste is piling up in landfill.
Pact Group offers a warning
It described soft plastics processor Recycling Plastics Australia’s fall into administration just two years after securing a A$20 million federal grant as the latest in a spate of bad news for Australia’s recyclers.
In a statement, it warned that at least five plastics recycling facilities have collapsed over the past four years, and added that others are running well below capacity.
Pact Group, which in July threw its weight behind proposed laws for EPR for packaging in Australia, also noted that more than 1m/t of plastics packaging waste are still being buried in landfill every year.
‘This is not a technology failure,’ it stated. ‘It is a policy failure. The Australian government banned the export of plastics waste and funded plastics recycling plants to the tune of A$137m, but it then failed to create the market conditions needed to make the recycling plants viable.
‘The core economics are brutal. In many cases, it costs more to recycle the plastics packaging waste than the recycled material is worth. That is why industry-backed promised national packaging reforms based on EPR, an approach used in the EU and UK to make brand owners responsible for the packaging they place on the market.’
Recovered instead of dumped
Pact Group claimed that the reforms were meant to introduce mandatory design, recyclability and recycled-content obligations so more packaging could be recovered and remade in Australia, rather than dumped.
‘In August 2026, Federal environment minister Murray Watt confirmed a national packaging scheme would not be introduced in this term of government, citing cost-of-living concerns, despite being committed to by Federal, State and Territory governments three years earlier,’ Pact Group stated.
‘The decision to delay national packaging reform risks wasting taxpayer investment, undermining local recycling jobs and locking Australia into a landfill-first plastics waste solution at the exact moment it should be building sovereign recycling and manufacturing capability.’
Pact Group urged the government to keep its promise to introduce national packaging reform and deliver mandatory rules that require packaging to be designed for recovery, reuse and recycling, and oblige brand owners to use recycled content in their plastics packaging.
‘In the absence of these promised reforms, more plastics recycling plants are at risk of closing their doors, and the government may be forced to prop up the sector with financial support to avoid an economic and environmental mess of its own making,’ it warned.
In other news, Chris Foley, APCO chief executive, is to step down at the end of November after four years in the role.
