States Left to Tackle Key Product Stewardship Alone
The Greens have condemned the Albanese government’s failure to act on its promises to legislate legally binding national schemes for waste reduction and recycling management, which has left the NSW Government to go it alone and introduce its own scheme for environmentally damaging products such as batteries.
As stated by Greens spokesperson for waste and recycling, Senator Peter Whish-Wilson:
“Good on the NSW Government for its nation-leading reform to introduce binding laws that regulate the full lifecycle of dangerous and environmentally damaging waste and recycling products – but states should never have been forced to go it alone.
“The waste and recycling industry has been in crisis for years due to battery fires. The federal Environment Minister has repeatedly threatened to regulate waste streams, but after years of talking nothing has changed.
“As usual, the Federal environment department is happy to outsource its waste reduction and recycling leadership and responsibilities to the states.
“As chair of the current Senate inquiry into the efficacy of Australia’s waste and recycling policies, the evidence has been loud, clear and unanimous: the last thing we need is a bunch of different state-based product stewardship schemes for waste streams such as batteries. We desperately need Commonwealth leadership and a ubiquitous national scheme.
“Commonwealth inaction on implementing legally binding product stewardship schemes that put responsibility back onto manufacturers of products has already resulted in the states going it alone to legislate popular container deposit schemes and bans on certain single-use plastics. This has meant each state now has its own different rules and regulations, which is a headache for industry.
“The Greens believe the federal Environment Minister could do worse than copying much of the NSW legislation and making this scheme mandatory around the country”.
https://greens.org.au/news/media-release/states-again-forced-go-it-alone-critical-product-stewardship-schemes