Greens spokesperson for Waste & Recycling and Healthy Oceans, Senator Peter Whish-Wilson, and the Environment spokesperson, Senator Sarah Hanson-Young, today released the exposure draft of a Bill that bans single-use plastics, helps tackle our current waste and recycling crisis, and reduces the toxic plastic pollution that is choking our oceans.

The Product Stewardship Amendment (Packaging and Certain Plastics) Bill 2019 will establish a mandatory product stewardship scheme that:

Greens spokesperson for Healthy Oceans, Senator Whish-Wilson, has called on Village Roadshow to stop tying red helium balloons to stormwater drains to promote the Stephen King movie IT because the balloons will undoubtedly enter the ocean and cause the deaths of our marine life.

Senator Whish-Wilson said, “When I saw photos of the red helium balloons tied to stormwater drains in Sydney I was furious. When balloons end up in the ocean they float and get swallowed by sea-birds, dolphins, whales and turtles.