We love our KeepCups. We’ve embraced our aluminium straws. We shudder at plastic-wrapped fruit. Yet as a collective, many of us are more than happy to grab a little plastic fish filled with soy sauce with which we use to douse our spicy tuna rolls. It’s a cognitive dissonance that the good folks of South Australia will stand no longer, as a new wave of single-use plastic bans sweeps the state.

From September 1 this year, the little fish will join a growing list of already-banned and soon-to-be-banned plastic items as the state of free settlers does its bit for the environment. 

South Australia is historically on the right side in terms of sustainable packaging – it was the first state to introduce a deposit refund on bottles and cans, and was the first state to phase out lightweight plastic shopping bags. 

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In 2020, the state set in motion the Single-use and Other Plastic Products (Waste Avoidance) Act, which was a groundbreaking piece of legislation that banned the sale and supply of single-use plastic drinking straws, cutlery and beverage stirrers from March 2021. The ban of expanded polystyrene cups, bowls, plates and clamshell containers followed in 2022.

In 2023, single-use plastic bowls without lids, plastic-stemmed cotton buds and single-use plastic plates were also banned.

The most recent wave of phase-outs came into effect on September 1, 2024, and prohibited the sale and use of plastic barrier bags used for unpackaged fruit, vegetables, nuts and confectionery; thick plastic film and plastic laminated paper shopping bags; expanded polystyrene consumer food and beverage containers; plastic confetti; plastic balloon sticks/ties; plastic food bag tags; single-use plastic hot and cold beverage cups and their attachments (lids and beverage plugs); and single-use plastic food containers used for ready-to-eat takeaway food.

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Come this September, it’ll be time to say goodbye to single-use plastic straws (like the straw on a juice box) and plastic cutlery attached to food or drink, plastic produce stickers and, of course, those tiny soy sauce fish. Strangely though, sachets of soy sauce and squeezy packs of sauce will not be banned. 

South Australia’s bold move is not the first initiative designed as a call to action over soy sauce fish. In 2021, Tasmanian design company Heliograf released Light Soy, a set of lamps made of ocean-bound plastic – and shaped like the iconic but insidious soy sauce fish.

For a full list of rules, regulations, banned items, and alternatives, head to the Replace the Waste website here.

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