Dear Minister Kean 

Thank you for taking steps to address the waste crisis with your recent announcement that your government will begin the process of phasing out some single-use plastics. As you would be aware, plastic waste is choking our oceans, polluting our streets and green spaces and killing our wildlife. This is a long overdue step. 

However, your announcement seemed to overlook several, crucial plastic items. Helium balloons for example, which have been the subject of multiple research papers, are listed in the top 3 killers of our marine life - the other 2 being plastic bags and fishing gear. Much of the research into balloon degradation behaviour and impacts on wildlife has even come from Australia’s own scientists and is heavily-weighted towards species from NSW such as Wedge-tailed Shearwaters. 

Other items that appear to be missing from your announcement include heavy-weight plastic shopping bags, takeaway coffee cups and lids. Both of these items pose a high level of environmental risk and there is simply no need for them to remain in use when we have the technology available for environmentally friendly alternatives. 

We urge you to make NSW the leading state in Australia by banning all single-use plastics already targeted in other states before the end of 2021 and setting a target for the elimination of all petroleum based single-use plastic in NSW within 3 years.

We also call for the Government to require by 2024 that all packaging is recyclable, compostable or reusable, all plastic packaging is comprised of at least 30% recycled plastic and that all new washing machines are fitted with a lint filter to trap microplastics.