Thursday, 4 May 2023

Questions without notice and ministers statements

Waste and recycling management

David DAVIS (Southern Metropolitan) (12:00): (121) My question is for the Minister for Environment. Minister, the government has recently suspended the REDcycle recycling scheme. Does the government remain committed to the REDcycle approach of separating plastics, and if so, on what date will a scheme commence?

Ingrid STITT (Western Metropolitan – Minister for Early Childhood and Pre-Prep, Minister for Environment) (12:00): I thank Mr Davis for his question. I need to point out from the outset that REDcycle is a recycling scheme that is run by the major retailers in Australia; it is not a government program, neither federal nor state. It is something that has been in place for a number of years, where the good citizens of Victoria have been dutifully returning their soft plastics to REDcycle collection points and doing the right thing. I know, as you all know, that Victorians are really passionate about recycling and tackling the problems that soft plastics cause our environment. Unfortunately, it would appear that for a number of years REDcycle have not been doing the right thing with the products that they have been collecting on behalf of the major retailers. They have been stockpiling them, and since these stockpiles were discovered the EPA has been actively regulating those sites to make sure that community safety is at the forefront of our regulatory response. The national retailers have been meeting with the ACCC and the federal government in relation to how we respond to this problem, and the national retailers, as you would be aware, Mr Davis, have recently taken responsibility for the stockpiles.

As Minister for Environment, I want to make sure that we avoid the stockpiles going to landfill, so I have asked my department to work closely with the federal government and with the retailers on finding solutions that avoid any of this product going into landfill. But I think that this is a really salient tale about making sure that, if you have got programs such as REDcycle that are set up for all of the right reasons, you make sure that you have an eye to what is going on in your supply chain. You cannot just set and forget and hope that with these commercial arrangements people do the right thing within that supply chain. We are looking closely at what other initiatives the Victorian government can support to make sure not only that soft plastics are dealt with in terms of recycling and alternative products but that we actually stop the enormous amount of plastics in our supply chains in the first place, and that is something that I am keen to continue to talk to my state, territory and Commonwealth counterparts about.

David DAVIS (Southern Metropolitan) (12:04): I take it from what the minister has said that there is no implementation date for a replacement scheme. I think that is what I am getting from that. Therefore I ask: where will these plastics go, Minister?

Ingrid STITT (Western Metropolitan – Minister for Early Childhood and Pre-Prep, Minister for Environment) (12:04): I thank Mr Davis for that supplementary question. It is clear to me that he did not listen to my answer, because I explained that this is a program that was initiated by the large retailers in Australia, not just in Victoria. They have taken responsibility for the stockpile, and they have also talked at length in a public statement about trying to get the program back up and running, so they have taken responsibility for those decisions. The Victorian government has a $515 million investment in overhauling our waste and recycling systems, and soft plastics make up an important part of that picture. We will be working closely with the recycling sector and also looking at what innovations can be supported around the repurposing of soft plastic products that are collected in Victoria.