Australia needs strong national packaging laws

Tell your federal MP to deliver the strong packaging laws that Australia was promised.

Australia’s coastlines and ocean are choking on single-use plastic. Across every corner of our ocean marine wildlife is harmed – turtles, seals, little penguins, dolphins, coral reefs and kelp forests are all paying the price for unnecessary packaging.

In 2022, the federal government promised national packaging laws by 2025.

These laws could hold big businesses accountable for the packaging they put on their shelves. But the laws are still nowhere in sight, and the amount of single-use plastic used by big businesses keeps climbing.

Meanwhile, we’re left paying more. Our supporters have helped reveal that even avoiding plastic on loose, plastic-free produce ends up costing everyday Aussies more.

The solution is simple. Plastic that is never made can never end up as pollution.

Your elected representatives will only deliver strong packaging laws that reduce single-use plastic if they hear that their community wants them. A message from you, their own constituent, carries real weight.

Add your name to support strong, mandatory national packaging laws that help protect our ocean!

By adding your name, you'll help turn off the tap on plastic pollution – and protect the turtles, seabirds, whales and reefs that make Australia's ocean like nowhere else on this planet.

Tell your federal MP to deliver the strong packaging laws that Australia was promised.

Australia’s coastlines and ocean are choking on single-use plastic. Across every corner of our ocean marine wildlife is harmed – turtles, seals, little penguins, dolphins, coral reefs and kelp forests are all paying the price for unnecessary packaging.

In 2022, the federal government promised national packaging laws by 2025.

These laws could hold big businesses accountable for the packaging they put on their shelves. But the laws are still nowhere in sight, and the amount of single-use plastic used by big businesses keeps climbing.

Meanwhile, we’re left paying more. Our supporters have helped reveal that even avoiding plastic on loose, plastic-free produce ends up costing everyday Aussies more.

The solution is simple. Plastic that is never made can never end up as pollution.

Your elected representatives will only deliver strong packaging laws that reduce single-use plastic if they hear that their community wants them. A message from you, their own constituent, carries real weight.

Add your name to support strong, mandatory national packaging laws that help protect our ocean!

By adding your name, you'll help turn off the tap on plastic pollution – and protect the turtles, seabirds, whales and reefs that make Australia's ocean like nowhere else on this planet.

Add your name to support strong national packaging laws

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Subject:

As a constituent in your electorate, I am writing to ask you to call on the Australian Government to deliver on its commitment to introduce new national packaging laws. Strong laws are urgently needed to protect our ocean and wildlife.

I'm deeply concerned about the volume of single-use plastic packaging used in Australia – and the damage it causes when it becomes pollution.

This isn't a niche concern – the Australian Government’s own consultation in 2024 found that 95% of respondents support reducing the environmental impacts of packaging.

YouGov polling of 1,501 voters in May 2026 found that the majority of Australians across the full political spectrum back reform: 67% expect laws to limit how much packaging can be used on a product, 89% think Australia should reduce its reliance on imported single-use plastic packaging, and 62% support making the companies that produce packaging responsible for its waste.

The overproduction of plastic is one of the greatest threats facing Australian marine life, and the impacts of plastic pollution are well documented and disturbing. Across Australia, sea turtle hatchlings have been found with hundreds of pieces of plastic in their guts, and seabird chicks on remote islands are so full of plastic that researchers can feel it in the bird’s stomach. Corals that come into contact with plastics are 20 times more likely to become diseased.

Packaging makes up around 60% of all litter collected at clean-ups in Australia. Research demonstrates that the more plastic that is produced, the more that ends up polluting our environment. The answer is simple – we must reduce how much unnecessary single-use packaging is used in Australia.

Australia's voluntary industry targets have failed. This is the predictable result of a system in which producers face no financial consequence for the waste they create. Despite the targets set out in the Recycling and Waste Reduction Act 2020, the volume of waste keeps climbing. In 2022 the Australian Government committed to national packaging laws – laws that were promised to be delivered by 2025 – and yet we’re still waiting.

Every day the government delays, the more unnecessary packaging ends up polluting our beaches and ocean.

Strong packaging laws can fix a system that currently charges people more to avoid single-use plastics. A household of four can pay $155 more per year just to buy apples, potatoes and onions loose rather than plastic-wrapped. That’s the wrong way around. Making producers responsible for their packaging puts the cost where it belongs, instead of leaving households paying more to opt out of plastic they never asked for.

The Australian Government must introduce strong new national packaging laws that reduce the amount of plastic produced, support reuse, design out wasteful packaging and toxic chemicals, and include a mandatory extended producer responsibility scheme that holds producers responsible for the full lifecycle of packaging.

Plastic pollution is preventable. As my elected representative, I urge you to call on the Australian Government to deliver the national packaging laws it government promised – laws that turn down the tap on plastic waste and support a genuine circular economy.

A copy of this letter has been sent to the Minister for the Environment and Water, Senator the Hon Murray Watt.

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After taking this action, an email will be sent to your local federal Member of Parliament and the Australian Environment Minister calling on them to support strong packaging laws to protect our ocean from plastic pollution.

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