• PM Scott Morrison speaks out on plastics recycling at the National Plastics Summit in Canberra. Image: Nerida Kelton
    PM Scott Morrison speaks out on plastics recycling at the National Plastics Summit in Canberra. Image: Nerida Kelton
  • Among the leaders attending this landmark event was WPO president Pierre Pienaar (left) pictured here with James Dorsey, CEO TOMRA/Cleanaway JV and Joshua Holmes of Vanden Recycling. (Image: Nerida Kelton)
    Among the leaders attending this landmark event was WPO president Pierre Pienaar (left) pictured here with James Dorsey, CEO TOMRA/Cleanaway JV and Joshua Holmes of Vanden Recycling. (Image: Nerida Kelton)
  • National Plastics Summit delegates Mark Jacobsen, Replas (left) and Liz Kassel, Red Group. (Image: Nerida Kelton)
    National Plastics Summit delegates Mark Jacobsen, Replas (left) and Liz Kassel, Red Group. (Image: Nerida Kelton)
  • WPO president Pierre Pienaar and Australian Institute of Packaging executive director Nerida Kelton at the National Plastics Summit.
    WPO president Pierre Pienaar and Australian Institute of Packaging executive director Nerida Kelton at the National Plastics Summit.
  • Delegates at the National Plastics Summit: Alan Adams of Sealed Air (left) and Ralph Moyle of the Australian Institute of Packaging. (Image: Nerida Kelton)
    Delegates at the National Plastics Summit: Alan Adams of Sealed Air (left) and Ralph Moyle of the Australian Institute of Packaging. (Image: Nerida Kelton)
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Industry leaders gathered in Canberra at the National Plastics Summit to find new solutions to the challenge of plastic waste and prompt action from governments, industry, and nongovernmental organisations.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison addressed the summit with a call for an improvement in kerbside recycling.

“When we take the time and effort to sort, clean and dispose of something in the recycling bin, it’s pretty reasonable that we think that it’ll be recycled – but only 21 per cent of plastic waste put in the yellow-lidded kerbside bins is recycled,” Morrison said.

“We’re getting ripped off. There’s a promise that’s implicit. You’ve got the bin, you put it in there, and you expect the right thing to be done with it. It’s important that when we have programmes in place to deal with that material, that promise is honoured. Otherwise people will give up on it.”

Minister for the environment Sussan Ley is hosting the National Plastics Summit. It is a one-day forum of 200 leaders from government, industry, and community sectors.

The forum aims to identify new opportunities to directly address targets under the National Waste Policy Action Plan.

Several organisations have made significant announcements in concert with the forum:

Food & Drink Business

Entries are now open for the annual Melbourne Royal Australian Food Awards. Open to commercial food producers of all sizes, it is one of the largest programs of its kind. 

Victorian brewery, Bodriggy Brewing Co, is the first brewery in the state to achieve carbon-neutral certification and only the second in Australia to do so. The independent Abbotsford-based brewery achieved certification under the federal government’s Climate Active program.

According to Rabobank data, Australian consumers are facing higher chocolate prices heading into Easter, with retail chocolate prices up 8.8 per cent on the previous year as global cocoa prices soar.