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States veto plastic ban
Chelsea White
18 April 2008
AUSTRALIA will not be following Manly Council's lead and banning plastic bags after Federal and State environment ministers failed to agree on a ban or a levy.
Federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett led the Melbourne talks yesterday on ways to reduce plastic bag usage.
However, while South Australia agreed to ban plastic bags from 2009 and Victoria is set to introduce a bag levy program in some areas, the other states voted against a national move.
Last week Manly became the first council in Australia to successfully use a development consent to ban plastic bags and containers at the new Balgowlah Totem shopping centre.
Yesterday, the Environment Protection and Heritage Council's chair, Federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett ruled out a similar ban or even a levy saying it would hurt struggling families.
``There will not be a national mandated charge on plastic bags in checkouts, but we do want to see increased action to reduce plastic bag use in the community," Mr Garrett said.
``We've identified the need for an urgent working group to be established between government and industry to look at making sure retailers are exploring all the options that they have in front of them," he said.
The meeting also agreed to do more research into a national container deposit levy.
Manly Council has been asking other local councils to join them to campaign for container deposit scheme since late last year.
A report into whether the plastic bottle refund scheme is viable will be released in November, Mr Garrett said.
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