2017-01-16 General Committee Agenda

GENERAL COMMITTEE MEETING AGENDA                                                                16 JANUARY 2017



8                        QUEENSLAND GOVERNMENT ANNOUNCES SINGLE USE PLASTIC BAG BAN
DOCUMENT INFORM AT ION




Author                              Waste Coordinator, Ian Florence
                                    Department Community Services

Index                               ECM/ Subject/ Waste – Council Reports

Attachments                         1.    Discussion Paper – Implementing a lightweight plastic shopping bag
                                          ban in Queensland (20pg attachment provided separately to this Agenda;
                                          2 x hard copies available in the Councillors’ Room)



EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Not applicable.

RECOMMENDATION
That Council note the report by the Coordinator Waste to the General Committee Meeting dated
16 January 2017 and:
A.                       Support the Queensland Government’s proposed ban on lightweight plastic shopping bags;
                         and
B.                       Submit a letter supporting the ban to the Department of Environment and Heritage Protection
                         during the public consultation phase of the process.



REPORT
On 25 November 2016 the Queensland Government announced that a ban on the supply of
‘lightweight single-use supermarket style plastic shopping bags’. This ban will come into effect on
1 July 2018.

In conjunction with the announcement, the Minister for the Environment and Heritage Protection,
Dr Steven Miles, released a discussion paper on the matter outlining the reasons for the ban and
how it may be implemented. Key reasons for the ban noted in the Paper include:
 Approximately 900 million single use plastic bags are used in Queensland each year;
 The majority end up in landfill and around 16 million enter the environment through littering;
 CSIRO research has shown that plastic pollution in coastal waters is seriously impacting marine
    wildlife, notably endangered leatherback turtles, green turtles and seabird chicks; and
 Littered plastic bags significantly impact on the visual amenity of an area.

The ban will extend to degradable, biodegradable and compostable single use bags. This goes
further than other States and the reason given is that:
 These types of bags are not a suitable substitute for plastic;
 Many degradable bags simply break down into smaller plastic particles, causing their own
   environmental impacts;
 Compostable bags break down only in the right conditions; and
 These types of bags still contribute to litter problems.




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