Committee Details

Committee's Report

The committee tabled its report on Friday 12 February 2021. The report is available here. The Bill was passed on 10 March 2021.  Links to the transcript of the debate are below.

About the Bill

On 3 December 2020, Hon Meaghan Scanlon, Minister for the Environment and the Great Barrier Reef and Minister for Science and Youth Affairs, introduced the Waste Reduction and Recycling (Plastic Items) Amendment Bill 2020 (Bill). The Bill was referred to the Health and Environment Committee for detailed consideration and report by Friday, 12 February 2021.

According to the explanatory notes the principal policy objective of the Bill is to amend the Waste Reduction and Recycling Act 2011 to ban the supply of single-use plastic items, starting with straws, stirrers, plates and cutlery. These items are predominantly unable to be recovered for recycling through mainstream and widespread collection systems, and can end up contaminating recycling streams thereby potentially creating more waste that requires disposal. The Bill seeks to achieve a reduction in plastic pollution resulting from single-use plastic by 20 per cent by 2023.

The Bill supports delivery of the broader principles of the Queensland Government’s Waste Management and Resource Recovery Strategy, released on 1 July 2019 and the aims of Tackling Plastic Waste – Queensland’s Plastic Pollution Reduction Plan to reduce plastic waste and the environmental and economic impacts of plastic pollution.

It should be noted that the Waste Reduction and Recycling (Plastic Items) Amendment Bill 2020, was referred to the Natural Resources, Agricultural Industry Development and Environment Committee (NRAIDEC) in the 56th Parliament.  The NRAIDEC tabled their report on that Bill on Friday, 28 August 2020, however, the Bill lapsed before it was debated in the Parliament when the 56th Parliament was dissolved on Tuesday, 6 October 2020. The subject Bill is substantially the same as the previous Bill. 

The committee may have regard to any evidence provided to the previous committee whilst considering the subject Bill.  All documents relating to the former committee's inquiry are available here.

Submissions

Submissions closed on Wednesday 13 January 2021.  The submissions are available under the 'View Submissions' tab.

Timeline

Related Information

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