SPSA seeks authorisation on behalf of itself, initial members and current or future participants. The initial members of SPSA are:
- ALDI Foods Pty Limited
- Coles Group Limited and its related bodies corporate
- Woolworths Group Limited and its related bodies corporate
- Nestle Australia Ltd
- Mars Australia Pty Ltd
- McCormick Foods Australia Pty Ltd
(collectively, the Initial Members).
SPSA and the Initial Members seek authorisation to establish and operate a voluntary industry-led product stewardship scheme, managed by SPSA, to focus on recycling used soft plastic packaging materials. This includes shopping bags, fresh product bags, food wrappers, bags and pouches.
The Scheme is intended to bring together retailers and consumer brand owners that supply products with soft plastic packaging to:
- rapidly and significantly reduce the volume of soft plastics being disposed of as waste to landfill; and
- maximise resource recovery by increasing collection and recycling rates and developing domestic soft plastics recycling capacity and end markets for recycled materials.
The scheme is proposed to be funded through the imposition of a levy on scheme participants based on how much soft plastic they place on the market. Placed on the market means the first time soft plastic packaging is supplied. For example when a manufacturer sells its product to a supermarket, the manufacturer will have placed the soft plastic on the market. Scheme participants may decide to pass on the cost of the levy through the supply chain, including to consumers.
- The levy will be initially calculated at the rate of $160 per tonne of soft plastic placed on the market by the scheme participant, or
- A minimum levy of $1,600 if the scheme participant places less than 10 tonnes of soft plastic each year.
The levy is expected to increase over time.
SPSA proposes to use levy funds to pay for the net incremental costs of collection, sortation, processing and recycling, as well as research and development in order to stimulate investment confidence to develop recycling capability.
Subject to authorisation, SPSA is also proposing to contribute $16 million to Coles and Woolworths by way of set off over the authorisation period sought. This is intended to cover some of the costs incurred by Woolworths and Coles in remediating the REDcycle stockpile.
SPSA seeks authorisation for 8 years.
SPSA has also requested urgent interim authorisation to allow it to commence collection of the scheme levy and transfer existing arrangements that the Australian Food and Grocery Council has in place for small-scale kerbside pilots, prior to the ACCC’s final determination in relation to the substantive application for authorisation.
SPSA has also requested further interim authorisation at the draft determination stage to seek information from the market to negotiate potential contracts for services and to share operational information and data between SPSA and the Soft Plastics Taskforce (Coles, Woolworths and ALDI) to allow SPSA to prepare to take over the operation of the instore collection pilot program and expand on these pilots, prior to the ACCC’s final determination in relation to the substantive application for authorisation.