Information Resources
Research and Reports
Plastic Bag Reduction in Australia:
To view the executive summary of research conducted in June 2009 into the Plastic Bag Ban in South Australia (6 months on), conducted by the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute at the University of South Australia, in partnership with Zero Waste SA, click here: Executive Summary of Research
To view the media release on the research findings visit: www.zerowaste.sa.gov.au/Publications.mvc/List/MediaReleases
To view the Environmental Protection and Heritage Council's archive of documents on plastic bag reduction in Australia, go to: www.ephc.gov.au/taxonomy/term/54
For the 2005 report on actions by ARA members to reduce and recycle plastic checkout bags, see:
Australian Retailers Association Code of Practice for the Management of Plastic Bags Final Report December 2005 (PDF)
For comparisons on the environmental impacts of shopping bags alternatives in Australia, see Sustainability Victoria's Life Cycle Analysis of Shopping Bag Alternatives:
www.sustainability.vic.gov.au/www/html/2713-use-less-plastic-shopping-bags.asp
Download the pdf
Actions by States to reduce plastic check out bag usage
South Australia:
www.byobags.com.au
www.zerowaste.sa.gov.au/About.mvc/PlasticBags
Victoria:
www.sustainability.vic.gov.au/www/html/2713-use-less-plastic-shopping-bags.asp
The Problem of Plastic Marine Litter
For information on the threat plastic pollution poses to threatened marine species, see:
Harmful Marine Debris, Key Threatening Processes Information Sheet, Department of the Environment and Heritage, August 2003
www.environment.gov.au/biodiversity/threatened/publications/marine-debris.html
Injury and fatality to vertebrate marine life caused by ingestion of, or entanglement in, harmful marine debris.
Advice to the Minister for Environment and Heritage from the Threatened Species Scientific Committee on a public nomination of a Key
Threatening Process under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999
www.environment.gov.au/biodiversity/threatened/ktp/marine-debris.html
Information on beach and ocean litter from the Queensland Environmental Protection Agency:
www.epa.qld.gov.au/environmental_management/coast_and_oceans/coastal_management/beach_and_ocean_litter/
To view the United Nations Environment Programme's Regional Seas Marine Litter publications, including Plastic Debris in the World's Oceans and Trash That Kills, go to:
www.unep.org/regionalseas/marinelitter/publications/default.asp