The NSW Government announced the next stage of its single-use and problematic plastic phase-outs in November of last year, with plastic soy sauce fish bottles, plastic bread tags and plastic fruit stickers all on the chopping block. The state will also be introducing tethered lids on plastic bottles – now common across Europe, these will be mandatory in NSW by 2030. 

Along with waving goodbye to helium balloons, with a ban on these taking effect from this year, New South Welshers will soon have to say a sad farewell to that pie-shop staple – the ‘single-serve’ plastic sauce sachet. By 2030, all single-serve plastic condiment packages will have to be recyclable and have labelling for proper disposal.

Related story: This Aussie design studio just created a plastic-free alternative to the soy sauce fish

Credit: Chris Court

Why is NSW banning single-use plastics?

Plastic pollution is a real and growing problem. Plastic makes up 74 percent of litter in NSW waterways, while more than 11 million tonnes of plastic waste ends up in the ocean worldwide every year. If this continues, by 2050, there will be more plastic in the ocean than fish. 

Less than 16 percent of plastic waste is recycled in NSW, with the remainder sent to landfill. But landfill space is finite – Greater Sydney looks set to run out of landfill space by 2030 unless urgent action is taken. The NSW Government’s plan aims to address the issue of plastic waste while also giving businesses and industry the time to find practical alternatives to single-use plastic items. 

As for us consumers? We’ll no doubt soon learn to live without our plastic-wrapped tomato sauce sachets and their disappointingly stingy contents. Hopefully, when they design new recyclable ones, they’ll make them large enough to tackle a whole pie, so we’ll no longer have to open four of the things just to get the job done. 

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