Despite running a business that relied on single-use plastics, Mark Hancock was optimistic when they were banned.
Key points:
- Some retailers are struggling to comply with the single-use plastic ban years after it was introduced
- There is still no commercial composting facility to help alternatives properly break down
- The NT government hopes to follow other jurisdictions and phase out single-use plastics in 2025
"I thought it was good. We had to go that way to get rid of plastics," the market stallholder said.
Introduced to stop plastic from Darwin's popular markets being used for a few minutes before harming the environment for centuries, the 2019 ban required retailers to turn to biodegradable or compostable alternatives instead.
The City of Darwin, which imposed the measure on all council land, said it was one of the first bans of its type in Australia.
But almost four years on, Mr Hancock said some business owners were still struggling to find suitable alternatives.
He said many affordable solutions simply melt in Darwin’s intense heat.
"We bought ... PLA [polylactic acid lids] – the appropriate lids – in from overseas, and we lost probably 120,000 of them ...they were thrown away, a few thousand dollars," Mr Hancock said.
"Then the straws, they crack. They last a couple of months so you can’t store them.
"Even the local supplier of those straws has gone away from them, because he was finding the same thing."
Others fear a blind eye is being turned as conventional plastics slowly return, setting a concerning precedent for when the Northern Territory follows other jurisdictions and phases out the products altogether by 2025.
'Standard plastics have come back'
To see whether the ban was being followed, the ABC randomly collected about half a dozen food containers from different market stalls and asked a local waste specialist how, and over what time frame, they would break down.
Simona Paganetto, who runs a consultancy business helping clients swap plastics for eco-friendly alternatives, said of the six containers, one was easily compostable, two were made of bio-plastics — derived from plant-based sources but required a facility to break down — and three were standard plastics, which were banned.
"What I can see is that the ban is still on and there are some stallholders, retailers, that are still doing the right thing," Ms Paganetto said.
"But I’ve also noticed there are a lot of standard plastics as well that have come back ... for example plastic bags, or standard plastic containers, cutlery, spoons.
"It’s a bit of a mix at the moment."
What went wrong?
Ms Paganetto said that when COVID arrived, some businesses had to stop accepting reusable containers.
At that point, the ban took a back seat to economic survival.
Stallholders like Mr Hancock said the policy wasn't being strictly enforced, leaving it to businesses and market operators to figure out compliance.
And in Darwin, there is no commercial composting facility to provide conditions suitable to break down materials from polyactic acid.
The Darwin council said four years ago that it planned to construct one, however it is still undertaking a business case.
It said it planned to have a facility operational within the next few years.
"If [PLA-based materials] go back to landfill, it’s not clear what is going to happen with these products," Ms Paganetto said.
"For example, there are studies that show that in anaerobic environments, these products biodegrade, releasing methane, which is 30 times more potent than carbon dioxide.
"That’s probably our biggest frustration - that it’ll all go to landfill, anyway," Mr Hancock said.
2025 single-use plastic ban looms
The Northern Territory government hopes to ban single-use plastics across the entire NT, years after other places like Queensland and Western Australia.
But Rebecca Gilling from environmental advocacy group Planet Ark said those jurisdictions had encountered hurdles of their own.
"I think it is the finding of alternatives," she said.
"We also know that there have been supply chain issues that have been exacerbated by the pandemic, which have delayed the arrival of sufficient stock of suitable alternatives."
Head of environment strategy at Darwin council, Nick Fewster, said it had taken an educational approach to compliance, and surveys of the ban are conducted through regular waste audits.
"Sometimes there’s room for improvement where there might be excess plastic stock that people are trying to get rid of, or people getting more information about the types of alternatives that are available to them," he said.
"But generally, we’ve seen a really good shift in people moving from single-use plastics over to other types of products.
"It’s never a favourable position when the community has to make quite a big shift, but it’s a very important decision to make as well."