The Boomerang Alliance has backed a federal Greens bill proposing a national packaging EPR scheme, saying it reflects growing frustration over stalled packaging reform and missed recycling targets.
The tabling of a federal Greens bill proposing a national Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) scheme for packaging has intensified calls for long-awaited packaging reform, with the Boomerang Alliance warning that continued inaction risks undermining Australia’s circular economy ambitions.
The Boomerang Alliance has welcomed the proposed legislation, saying it reflects mounting frustration across industry, government and environmental stakeholders over the pace of packaging reform in Australia.
In a statement issued on 13 May, Jeff Angel, director of the Boomerang Alliance, said the current co-regulatory packaging framework had failed to achieve meaningful outcomes despite years of industry commitments and national targets.
“Over the last 25 years the co-regulatory scheme – effectively a voluntary scheme – aimed at reducing packaging waste and litter has failed to deliver,” Angel said.
He pointed to missed 2025 National Packaging Targets, noting that less than 20 per cent of recyclable plastic packaging is currently recycled, while recycled content levels in plastic packaging remain below eight per cent.
“There is no reuse strategy, and greenwash has proliferated,” he said.
The Boomerang Alliance said it supports packaging reforms based on mandatory producer responsibility obligations and legislated sustainability targets. Angel noted that a broad coalition of industry and peak organisations – including Australian Packaging Covenant Organisation, Australian Council of Recycling, Soft Plastic Stewardship Australia and the Waste Management and Resource Recovery Association of Australia – has been calling for reforms to be enacted in 2026.
The statement also referenced warnings from the recycling sector about the fragility of Australia’s plastics recycling industry without stronger regulatory settings and mandated demand for recycled content.
“The recycling industry has already warned the Commonwealth of a potential collapse of the plastic recycling industry without a mandatory EPR scheme,” Angel said.
The comments come as Australia’s environment ministers move towards a national intergovernmental agreement on packaging circularity, following recent discussions aimed at creating a more consistent national approach to packaging regulation and stewardship.
According to the Boomerang Alliance, key elements of reform should include a legislated EPR framework covering the full lifecycle of packaging, mandated industry targets spanning reduction, reuse, recycling and recycled content, and the establishment of an industry-funded national soft plastics collection system.
The organisation also called for future packaging regulation to be built around circular economy principles focused on waste elimination and retaining materials at their highest value within the economy.
