Project Background

During the course of 2018, officers from legal and governance, environmental health and cleansing and solid waste teams took the opportunity to undertake wide ranging consultation on the proposed by-law and conducted a range of complimentary activities.

Consultation indicated consumers would welcome a reduction in single-use plastic and support businesses in moving away from non-compostable takeaway items.

A survey was conducted on Your Say Hobart between February and March 2018 returning significant responses in favour of reducing the use of single-use plastic.

• Of the 2,962 responses, 96% disagreed when asked “do you think it is appropriate to use single-use plastics?”

• An overwhelming 90% said they were willing to pay more for food and drinks if it meant that sustainable packaging was used.

• Survey responses indicated a sensitivity to how much more consumers would be willing to pay, with around two-thirds willing to pay up to 5% extra.

• While a state government ban was perceived more favourably, 75% of surveyed participants felt that a local government ban would be an effective or highly effective way of getting more takeaway food businesses to use less single-use packaging.

• A ban was perceived to be significantly more effective than the use of support and education.