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Single use plastics

Information on reducing your single use plastic consumption.

What is the problem with plastics?

  • Single-use plastic items make up about one third of the volume of Victoria’s litter.
  • Plastic pollution harms our health, wildlife and the environment and attracts significant clean-up costs.
  • Many single-use plastic items are difficult and economically unviable to recycle. Often, they end up contaminating our recycling. They can often be easily avoided or replaced with reusable products.
  • They are used for an average of 15 minutes but take centuries to breakdown in landfill.

Avoid single use items

What is better than reusing or recycling an item? Avoiding it in the first place. Ask yourself, do you really need it? And if the answer is no, then avoid it.

The best way to reduce your waste is to not create it in the first place!

Victoria Single Use Plastic ban

From the 1st of February 2023, following single use items will be banned:

  • plastic drinking straws
  • plastic cutlery
  • plastic plates
  • plastic drink-stirrers
  • expanded polystyrene food and drink containers
  • cotton bud sticks

The ban of specific single-use plastic items from sale or supply across Victoria will be enacted by the state government. For more information on this, please visit: Reducing plastic pollution starts with us | Victorian Government (www.vic.gov.au)

Please note - even if advertised as “compostable” or “biodegradable”, single-use plates, bowls and cutlery still need to be thrown out via the general waste bin.

Passionate about minimising your single-use plastics?

Check out more tips and tricks from Sustainability Victoria.

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