Australia's plastic ban has been upgraded! These two types of plastic products will be banned

Recently, the Western Australian government announced a further expansion of the plastic ban, takeaway food container LIDS and bulk food bags will be banned from use, exempt from the Australian composting standard certified products. The ban will come into effect on September 1, 2024.

Since its launch in 2021, WA's Plastics program has removed hundreds of millions of single-use plastic items from circulation. Items banned under the scheme already include plastic takeaway coffee cups, plastic microbeads, polystyrene cups, cotton swabs with plastic stems and loosely filled polystyrene packaging.

The ban on single-use plastic takeaway food container LIDS and bulk bags is expected to save up to 226 million single-use plastics from landfills and waste each year.

Households with three-box FOGO systems can also compost compliant produce bags, including using them as kitchen trash liner.

Environment Minister Reece Whitby said WA was leading the nation in reducing the use of single-use plastics, and he believed people would move to environmentally friendly alternatives in the same way they phased out single-use shopping bags and coffee cups. The National Retail Association will also assist with the implementation of the new ban, while there will also be a transition period for businesses before the ban is officially implemented.