South Australia is taking another step towards banning all single-use plastic products with the release of Green Industries SA’s (GISA) latest public consultation report which shows businesses, industry groups and householders want to phase out a range of single-use plastic products.

The new report - Turning the Tide – calls for single-use plastic products including cups, food containers, bowls and plates to be the next items to be phased out.

Easily replaced items like plastic stemmed cotton buds and confetti will be phased out sooner rather than later, with items like single-use plastic beverage containers and lids requiring further consultation on how quickly phase out can occur.

More than 3,500 South Australians provided their feedback on these items with an overwhelming 97 per cent of respondents agreeing that single-use plastic was a major issue that needed to be addressed.

Last week, Queensland announced it would ban a range of products including plastic microbeads, polystyrene packing peanuts and plastic-stemmed cotton buds by 1 September 2023.

Earlier this week, Environment Minister Susan Close released the GISA report to mark Plastic Free July at Let Them Eat in James Place. The popular vegetarian café is the 42nd Adelaide business to be accredited by GISA and Plastic Free SA as a Plastic Free SA Champion.

Since starting in 2019, the Plastic Free SA program has helped SA businesses remove more than five million single-use plastic items, including more than 1.5million single-use coffee cups.

The complete list of responses and feedback to government is available at www.ReplaceTheWaste.sa.gov.au and www.greenindustries.sa.gov.au

Quotes

Attributable to Susan Close

It is abundantly clear the public wants action on single-use plastic and we will continue to engage with business, including the hospitality sector, about the best way forward.

Single-use plastic is part of a linear economy, where we take, make and waste materials. That’s a loss of the energy, water and materials and it’s not the circular economy we want for South Australia.

The cost to the environment and the massive carbon footprint of single-use plastic can’t be ignored. If we want to address climate change, we must change what we buy, how it’s packaged and how we recover materials.

I congratulate Danielle Frankish from Let Them Eat café on becoming the 42nd certified Plastic Free SA champion.

Attributable to Plastic Free SA program coordinator Taryn Hansen

I’m thrilled to welcome our latest certified Plastic Free Champion, Let Them Eat café.

The great thing about our program is that we can provide free advice, tailored to each business we work with so that they can easily remove single-use items voluntarily before any bans come into place.

When businesses choose to voluntarily remove single-use plastic with our support and advice on much more sustainable alternatives, they really don’t see any impact when more items are banned, they’ve already moved on.

Attributable to Let Them Eat cafes owner Danielle Frankish

Getting certified as ‘Plastic Free Champions’ was important to us because our customers have made it clear this is what they expect.

We do our bit by using sustainable ingredients wherever possible. Our packaging is minimal and either recyclable or compostable. Even labelling is done with stamps, not stickers.

We also welcome customers bringing their own reusable containers which is a great way to replace the waste and avoid packaging entirely.