WWF has a global mission to achieve no plastic in nature. In pursuit of this, WWF-Australia is seeking to prevent single-use plastics from entering our oceans and endangering our marine wildlife. This report has been developed in association with Boston Consulting Group, to address this issue.

The report recognises that the federal, state and territory governments have, or are in the process of, setting admirable goals to reduce plastic waste. We also recognise the complexity and urgency of the problem; comprehensive and coordinated regulations addressing all elements of the plastics value chain are required to create a sustainable solution. This report aims to contribute to this process by providing recommendations on the most problematic plastics leaking into the environment to enable government to confidently take regulatory action.

The report focuses exclusively on the six most problematic categories of consumer single-use plastics. These are:

1. plastic bottles
2. soft ‘scrunchable’ plastics
3. disposable foodware
4. disposable packaging & containers
5. cigarettes
6. microplastics

For these six categories of single-use plastic, this report recommends a range of policy levers across product design, use and disposal to reduce consumption, increase rates of reuse and recycling and ultimately reduce leakage into the environment. This report does not consider the additional regulation, processes or infrastructure required after an item has been recovered, to treat, sort and/or repurpose plastics and to encourage demand for recyclates. Neither does it consider the broader, secondary benefits of addressing the plastics issue, such as job creation and reduction in greenhouse gas emission.