The ACT government will begin preparing strategies to phase out single-use plastics in the territory after the Canberra community demonstrated overwhelming support for the proposal.
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The government released the consultation summary on Friday. There were 3300 interactions during the consultation period from individuals, businesses and organisations.
Among the more than 2770 people surveyed, 94 per cent supported phasing out polystyrene, 93 per cent supported phasing out plastic stirrers or straws and 92 per cent supported phasing out plastic lined coffee cups.
The plastic product that garnered the lowest amount of support for a phase out was takeaway food containers, which still attracted support from 87 per cent of the respondents.
In addition to the survey, the government received written submissions, hosted community sessions and reached people through a number of events and social media activity.
The single-use plastics considered for phasing out included plastic straws, cutlery, plats, cups and bags.
Phasing out of single-use plastic sanitary items, medical items like syringes, beverage containers, nappies and reusable bags was not considered.
ACT minister for recycling and waste reduction Chris Steel said the subject saw particularly high levels of community engagement and supported government intervention for a phase out.
"Canberrans strongly held the view that action needs to be taken to phase out single-use plastics with a transition to readily available alternatives," Mr Steel said.
"Importantly the huge majority of the community supports strong government regulatory action to ban problematic and unnecessary single-use plastics, rather than just non-regulatory responses."
Seventy-five per cent of the community respondents and 78 per cent of the businesses surveyed thought a government regulatory approach would be most successful.
Mr Steel said the government would carefully consider the needs of people with disabilities in the phase out as many submissions were received about the importance of plastic straws for people with a disability.
The consultation report showed individuals were more supportive of a phase out than businesses, however 80 per cent of business that responded either definitely or probably supported the move.
Costs of alternatives to single-use plastics, availability from suppliers and a lack of knowledge of alternatives were the most common barriers to phasing out the single-use plastics for businesses.
Individuals and businesses reported already voluntarily phasing out single-use plastics.
More than 25 per cent of individual submissions and 60 per cent of organisations wanted the government to lead by example by providing incentives and investment to achieve the phase out.
Mr Steel said the government would now turn its mind to developing policy to present to the legislative assembly.
