Roger Jaensch,Minister for the Environment
Today marks the start of Keep Australia Beautiful Week, placing a spotlight on plastics and how we can reduce its use.
The focus on plastics aligns with the work that the Tasmanian Liberal Government is undertaking to phase out single-use plastics.
We have committed to phasing out single-use plastics from government and council facilities and events held on publicly owned land across the state by 2023, as well as our plan to phase out problematic and unnecessary plastics by 2025.
Importantly, we are investing $1 million over four years to implement our single-use plastics commitment, including $100,000 to encourage innovative ideas from small businesses to start this journey.
Plastic often ends up in the litter stream and by phasing out single-use plastics we can dramatically reduce the amount of plastic that ends up in our beaches, parks, and by the roadside.
We also know that another way to reduce plastics, and other wastes, from ending up in the natural environment is to reduce the occurrence of littering. That's why to help address this, the Tasmanian Liberal Government has increased the penalties for illegal dumping, and developed Report Rubbish, which allows members of the community to report littering or dumping on their smartphone or computer.
The Tasmanian Government is also encouraging the responsible management of plastic with the recent announcement of the successful recipients of the Recycling Modernisation Fund Grants, jointly funded between the Australian and Tasmanian Governments.
A total of $11m of funding has been made available for innovative plastic reprocessing projects in Tasmania with three successful projects chosen, including one that has the potential to reprocess all of Tasmania's used plastic milk bottles, helping to build a circular economy in Tasmania.
Importantly, we remain committed to introducing a Container Refund Scheme in Tasmania which will dramatically reduce the littering of plastic containers and increase the recovery and recycling of those materials.
This week I encourage all Tasmanians to pitch in and do their bit by reducing their plastic use or getting out into their local community and collecting plastic already in the environment.
Tasmanians can find out more about our plan to deliver important actions to tackles priority waste and resource recovery issues at https://dpipwe.tas.gov.au/environmental-management
