In a welcome move on Tuesday night,  the Hon. Penny Sharpe, NSW Minister for the Environment introduced the Product Lifecycle Responsibility Bill to the NSW Parliament. This bill will establish a framework to regulate product stewardship over a range of environmentally damaging products. The Minister gave a clear indication batteries would be the first priority for regulation.

Manly Cove, one of Sydney Harbour’s most iconic swimming spots, has been revealed to be a microplastic hotspot, highlighting a widespread issue impacting popular coastal areas. According to a long-running survey conducted by AUSMAP, a project of Total Environment Centre, swimmers here are immersed in a soup of plastic pollution.

Alongside the Total Environment Centre and the Sydney Basin Koala Network called for independent oversight of Transport NSW’s Koala management practices which are consistently falling short of their own published standards, contributing to record Koala road deaths in South West Sydney. 

Yesterday's meeting of state and federal Environment Ministers was in disarray as Queensland, under its new LNP government, refused to take part in any national action on the circular economy including to reduce the environmental and economic costs from wasteful packaging, PFAS and plastics.   

With Australia’s environment ministers meeting in a few days, peak groups representing Australia’s waste management and resource recovery industry and the environment movement have come together to demand urgent mandatory regulation of all end-of-life (EoL) batteries, which, under current practices, pose serious risks to the environment and resource recovery sectors.

50-plus years is a long time to be engaged in the battle to protect the environment that we all depend on and share with an incredible array of animals and plants. That’s how long TEC has been working and we tell our story in our just released and beautifully designed Impact Report.

Environmental groups have called for an urgent rescue plan from land clearing, urban sprawl and roadkills, for the endangered Koala colonies of the Sydney Basin, at a meeting with Judith Hannan MP, President of the Parliamentary Friends of the Koalas.

Our investigation into voluntary battery recycling under the failing battery stewardship scheme, B-cycle, identified many free rider producers evading responsibility for battery waste, and B-cycle participants, more often than not, failing to promote the scheme to their consumers.

Environmental groups, including Total Environment Centre and Boomerang Alliance, issued an alert on the weakening resolve by the Commonwealth government to implement a circular economy, at the hearing of the Environment and Communications Committee Inquiry into waste reduction and recycling policies, today. 

Shocking levels of microplastic pollution have been found in wetlands on the edge of an industrial area in Adelaide, with the source being plastic production factories and catchment runoff. The results are AUSMAPs, a project of Total Environment Centre, largest found so far since starting to sample in the wetlands since 2019. AUSMAP Director, Dr Michelle Blewitt shares, "The pollution has been going on for years, with little action from environment protection authorities and factory owners.  Over 796,000 pieces per square metre, which are long-lasting and accumulating every year." These levels of microplastics pollution are a continuous danger to fish and birdlife in the Barker Wetlands (and adjoining waterways) and contribute to the microplastic load that is being absorbed by the human population.

Today’s announcement by the NSW government of its response to rampant land clearing and dodgy offsets has some welcome elements. However, there is a grave risk that developers and rural landowners will accelerate plans to clear native vegetation before the new laws come into effect.

WA’s much needed ban on e-waste to landfill commenced from Monday this week, but unfortunately, vapes were excluded from that ban.