Should Scone Reject ‘Wrapped in Plastic’?

By Taylah Fellows

Single-use plastics have become a way of life, from buying a sausage roll wrapped in plastic at the footy, to turning away from bubblers and preferring even our water to be wrapped in plastic.

The Upper Hunter Shire Council is looking to turn the tide on our habits by introducing a new Single-use Plastic Events policy encourage all residents to find alternatives to single-use plastic at public events.

The proposed policy will be implemented over a 12 months and begin by banning single-use plastic on council-owned land at venues such as the Bill Rose Complex, Scone Park and Elizabeth Park.

Councillor Sue Abbot said the policy is not designed to punish people for using plastic or for buying a sausage roll wrapped in plastic at the local football canteen, instead it is an education process to look at where people can switch to other alternatives.

“It isn’t a penalty process and there won’t be any fines,” said Cr Abbott.

“It might be that somebody who uses single-use plastic switches to a hard plastic container or purchases some picnic ware that they’ve always wanted to make a general shift away,” she said.

“When I was a kid we’d always pack the picnic set with the plates and cups, but now things have gotten easier and you can buy this single-use plastic everywhere for convenience,” said Cr Abbott.

If the policy is passed, Cr Abbott said Council will help local vendors and clubs make the transition to environmentally friendly products.

“I’ve been one of those mum’s selling from the canteen so I know a lot of sporting clubs don’t have the money to change over, but we can work together and it could be that those clubs come to council and say ‘look this is really hard here so what can we do and how can you help us in this transition’, we’re completely open to all of that because we understand that for some people change won’t be possible straight away,” said Cr Abbott. 

“There is always pain in transition but if the policy passes we’re going to try and minimise it,” said Cr Sue Abbott.

“If you’ve got plastic and you use it twenty times then that’s a different story, but hopefully people will start looking at bamboo or compostable items,” said Cr Abbott.

“People will benefit from it because were being buried in rubbish and our waterways are being affected so lets try and minimise this [plastic] but at the same time still allow people to make money for their clubs,” she said.

“Of course its going to be incredibly hard to start with and councils in Australia and across the world have already done it,” she said.

“The transition needs to be managed wisely,” Cr Abbott said.

Other Councils which have implemented a single-use plastics policy include Woolongong City, Northern Beaches, North Sydney and the Central Coast.

Councillor Lee Watts who did not support the draft policy, said it cannot be passed at this stage without community input.

“First it needs to be discussed in community groups who can’t afford to purchase environmentally friendly products to replace their plastic…it just can’t be bought-in in one go,” said Cr Watts.

“The policy needs to be looked at and there needs to be a discussion about how this can and can’t happen,” she said.

Cr Watts, in her capacity of manager at the Scone Neighbourhood Resource Centre said she would be putting in a submission to Council on the policy and encourages other community groups and residents to do the same.

“If we don’t get the submissions we’ve got nothing to back us up so we really do need the community to tell us how it’s going to impact them,” said Cr Watts.

“Water bubblers to replace bottled water and all those things will have to be put in place so if it does go through it will have to be phased in over some time,” said Cr Watts.

Councillor Abbott said manufacturers often leave people with no alternatives and Council’s are left with the bill of unnecessary rubbish removal, so Federal or State assistance is needed.

“All the good things happening across Australia in terms of the environment is completely down to local government and they are completely carrying the can and the burden of the cost as well,” said Cr Abbott.

“The Council will try and encourage this [policy] change but we know our part is to lobby those members who represent us and are seriously doing nothing at the moment,” she said.

“It comes down to government just saying to manufactures you’ve got to stop packaging your stuff in single-use plastic, we need them to pull their weight,” said Cr Abbott.

You can view the policy and make a submission Single-Use Plastics Policy.

Submissions close Thursday, August 8th.