New plastic bans have taken effect today in Queensland, Western Australia and South Australia. They prohibit items like plastic cotton buds but will function differently in each state.
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00:00 Under Australia's constitution, states and territories are responsible for waste and
00:07 recycling, which means they're also responsible for implementing their own plastic bans.
00:12 What we've now got in Australia, interestingly, is a bit of a race to the top with states
00:16 competing to see who's going to lead in terms of banning single-use plastics.
00:20 Queensland, WA and South Australia are leading the way.
00:24 From today, they've all banned plastic cotton buds.
00:27 Queensland's also banning loose-fill polystyrene packaging, plastic microbeads in cosmetic
00:33 and cleaning products, thick plastic shopping bags and the mass release of balloons.
00:38 In Western Australia, it's also the end of loose polystyrene packaging and microbeads,
00:44 as well as polystyrene cups and trays and degradable plastics.
00:48 And in South Australia, there'll be no more single-use plastic bowls and plates and pizza
00:54 box spaces.
00:55 What we really do need now is to that harmonisation of the bans on single-use plastics.
00:59 Certainly for industry, it's confusing and difficult to have different rules in every
01:02 state and territory, but also we really need to be working together as a nation.
01:06 There are calls for a national roadmap with timelines for phasing out environmentally
01:10 damaging plastics across all states, in the hope of a unified push against the environmental
01:17 hazard.
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