The Australian Packaging Covenant Organisation, Australian Council of Recycling and Boomerang Alliance have issued a united call for nationally consistent extended producer responsibility for packaging, following the administration of a major plastics recycler and Federal Government confirmation that no new Commonwealth packaging scheme will be introduced this term.
The joint position brings together the organisation administering Australia’s current packaging co-regulatory framework, the recycling industry and the environmental movement in support of an extended producer responsibility (EPR) approach.
It follows Recycling Plastics Australia entering voluntary administration, placing about 60 Adelaide jobs and domestic plastics-processing capacity at risk.
The call also comes after the Federal Government advised packaging stakeholders that it would not introduce a new Commonwealth packaging scheme during the current term. The government is instead looking to work with states and territories on nearer-term improvements to packaging regulation and policy.
APCO, ACOR and the Boomerang Alliance said Australia now needed a published pathway and timetable for national packaging reform.
“Australia needs certainty on packaging reform,” said APCO CEO Chris Foley. “A national EPR approach can give producers clear rules, unlock investment in recycling, and replace fragmented approaches with a more consistent system.”
The three organisations point to Australian Government data showing that 6.84 million tonnes of packaging were placed on the market in 2023–24, with 41 per cent disposed to landfill.
Plastic packaging remains a particular concern. Research prepared by Rennie Advisory for ACOR and APCO found that Australia uses more than 1.3 million tonnes of plastic packaging each year, of which more than one million tonnes is ultimately landfilled or littered.
ACOR CEO Suzanne Toumbourou said pressure on recycling infrastructure was no longer a future risk.
“We are already seeing recycling facilities close, with others under growing pressure, and the investment that built them go to waste because there is no policy certainty to keep them viable,” she said.
“Give our sector a nationally consistent scheme with real targets and eco-modulated fees, and industry will respond with the infrastructure, the jobs and the local manufacturing Australia cannot afford to lose.”
Under an EPR model, producers assume greater financial – and potentially operational – responsibility for managing packaging after use. Its proponents argue that this would shift costs away from households, councils and governments while encouraging better packaging design and creating demand for recovered materials.
The organisations also cited the 2026 Recycling Behaviours Report from Cleanaway and the Clean Energy Finance Corporation. Its survey of 1000 Australians found that 83 per cent supported making companies pay for recycling their plastic packaging, while 94 per cent supported a circular economy for packaging.
“Australians want the companies that put packaging on the market to pay for cleaning it up – not councils, not ratepayers and not the environment,” said Boomerang Alliance director Jeff Angel.
The three bodies are calling for an EPR framework that establishes nationally consistent producer responsibilities, measurable targets and investment certainty for Australian recycling and remanufacturing.
Their intervention adds to pressure on federal, state and territory ministers ahead of the Environment Ministers Meeting expected in mid-September, where packaging regulation is due to return to the agenda. The focus will now be on whether ministers can agree on a credible near-term pathway despite the Commonwealth’s decision to defer a new national scheme.
Ed’s note: The significance of this joint position should not be underestimated. APCO, ACOR and the Boomerang Alliance bring different roles and perspectives to the packaging debate, yet all now support a nationally consistent extended producer responsibility approach. Coming days after Recycling Plastics Australia entered voluntary administration and the Federal Government confirmed it would not introduce a new Commonwealth packaging scheme this term, their alignment raises a pressing question for environment ministers: what further evidence or consensus is required before definitive reform proceeds?
