Lake Macquarie is no stranger to pollution. With our growing population we need to address our waste management approach at the State level. I support legislation to reduce our reliance on plastics and traditional landfill waste management processes.
Plastics
Population growth brings the added burden of waste, and while local councils are responsible for waste management services, the NSW State Parliament has introduced the Environmental Legislation Amendment (Plastic Reduction and Container Recycling) Bill 2026, to manage the volume and lifecycle of plastics pollution.
The Bill's key focus is obviously limited to certain pervasive plastic waste, including helium balloons and single-use cups. The focus of the Plastics Plan 2.0 is broader and provides for the phasing out of other plastic waste, such as microbeads, umbrella bags, pizza savers, bread tags and fruit and vegetable stickers, to name a few. However, like many others, I would like to see it gather momentum and go further.
The plastics plan and this Bill are important steps, but the Government cannot stop here. Further investigation should be ongoing to identify any opportunity to phase out plastics, whether through consumer behaviour-change initiatives, industry support or regulation.
We just don’t know where all the plastic we consume goes, but we are happy to rely on plastic products despite knowing the damage they cause to our personal and environmental wellbeing. It demonstrates our work here is not done. I am pleased with the passing of this Bill and will continue to support legislation to tackle our society’s waste and plastics problem head-on.
Lake Macquarie was one of the first Local Government Areas in NSW to introduce FOGO recycling, to collect and transform our organic (green bin) waste into useable composted mulch, at the Remondis Organics Resource Recovery Facility in Awaba.
I was pleased to support amendments to the Protection of the Environment Legislation Amendment (FOGO Recycling) Bill 2024, which passed both houses of the NSW Parliament and was assented in March 2025. The Bill provided for the source-separated collection of FOGO waste from households and businesses and the reporting of supermarket food donations across the State. The additional benefit is cutting greenhouse gas emissions and reducing reliance on landfill for waste management in NSW.
