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New plastic bans look to be setting Australia on a path away from unnecessary waste.
Australians use more than three tonnes of plastic each year with almost 85 per cent destined for landfill.
But along the way much of that leaks into waterways.
Shane Cucow, Plastics Campaign Manager at the Australian Marine Conservation Society says our current plastic recycling schemes only capture a small percentage of plastic waste.
"The estimates that we have is that about 30 per cent of the world's plastic is leaking out into the oceans and that's estimated to be similar here in Australia. When you compare that to 13 percent being recycled that's vastly more ending up in the oceans than what's being recycled so it's quite concerning."
The push to ban single-use plastics in Australia started in 2009 when South Australia became the first state to abolish lightweight bags in favour of thicker reusable ones.
But now they’re on the way out too with Queensland following Western Australia in getting rid of the plastic bags in favour of paper or more durable alternatives.
Queensland's Environment Minister Leanne Linard says they will ensure these alternatives will be just as useful for consumers.
"To make sure they can be reused at least 125 times, 80 per cent recyclable content in there. And this will follow those successful prohibitions and bans we've seen and it's all about reducing single-use plastic in our environment."
The bags will also need to meet specific reusability design standards.
Like existing plastic options, consumers will need to purchase them at check-out.
Ebony Johnson from the National Retail Association says that Australian retailers are on-board with the proposal.
"These changes are world first and nation-leading, particularly in terms of plastic shopping bags because it really sets a new recycled contents standard and a reusability standards. Rather than just banning all plastic shopping bags we're actually looking at a circular economy here. Really reusing those bags rather than just swapping to another disposable option even if its recyclable."
Also coming into effect, Queensland and Western Australia are banning loose-fill polystyrene packaging as well as plastic microbeads commonly found in scrubs and cleaners.
The sunshine state will also ban mass balloon releases and South Australia will abolish plastic bowls and plates.
All three states will put an end to plastic sticks on cotton buds.
Also in their sights are coffee cups and lids, plastic fruit and veggie bags as well as plastic takeaway containers with South Australia and W-A set to be the first in the country to phase them out next year.
Currently plastic cutlery, stirrers, and straws as well as polystyrene containers are banned in every state and territory except Tasmania and the Northern Territory.
The Territory plans to enact its own ban in 2025, but Tasmania is yet to make a move on anything other than single use shopping bags.
Shane Cucow, from the Australian Marine Conservation Society says these steps are good, but much of the issue is still being sidestepped.
"We're seeing the overall amount of plastic increase but we're not managing to get our plastic recycling rates up and one of the reasons for that is we don't have many rules around the use of plastic packaging. We know that soft plastics, food and beverage packaging make up over 70 per cent of the plastic items being found in our ocean clean-ups. So we really need to start having some rules - not just phasing out single-use plastics - but actually requiring companies to use more sustainable packaging."
