Soft Plastic Stewardship Australia (SPSA) and its industry members have been authorised to collect and recycle used soft plastic packaging under a voluntary scheme.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has granted an eight-year authorisation for the scheme. It was developed by food and grocery industry stakeholders, including Woolworths, Coles, Aldi, Nestlé, Mars and McCormick Foods, but will be run by SPSA.
Under the scheme, industry participants will pay a fee based on how much soft plastic packaging they generate each year.
SPSA and its members previously applied to the ACCC to have their collaboration in this scheme be exempt from some of Australia’s competition laws.
“As the scheme aims to acquire and broaden the current instore and kerbside trial collection programs for soft plastic recycling, we’ve determined that it will likely result in some soft plastics being diverted from landfill,” said ACCC deputy chair Mick Keogh.
“We consider this is an environmental benefit,” he added.
There are certain conditions that come with the ACCC’s exemption. SPSA is required to complete annual public reporting about the performance of the scheme to ensure its transparency.
The scheme must be independently reviewed in the third and seventh year of its operation. SPSA must also include at least two independent directors and cannot enter into exclusive contracts with processors.
The ACCC noted that it is not an environmental regulator and that broader issues of policy and regulations around soft plastics, including whether to introduce mandatory regulations, are beyond its scope.
“We don’t consider that the SPSA scheme will delay or deter other regulatory approaches to soft plastic stewardship,” Keogh said.
