Section 68 of the Product Stewardship Act 2011 requires the minister to prepare an annual report on the operation of the Act. This section provides the report for the period from 1 July 2019 to 30 June 2020.

Operation

The Act provides for 3 levels of product stewardship: voluntary; co-regulatory; and mandatory.

Voluntary product stewardship

Part 2 of the Act provides for voluntary product stewardship. Under the Act, organisations can seek accreditation from the government for product stewardship arrangements and request permission to use product stewardship logos.

The framework for voluntary accreditation is being considered following feedback in the Product Stewardship Act 2011 Review.

Mobile Muster was the sole accredited voluntary product stewardship scheme during 2019–20.

Further information is available on our website.

Co-regulatory product stewardship

Part 3 of the Act provides for co-regulatory product stewardship. The National Television and Computer Recycling Scheme, set up by the Product Stewardship (Televisions and Computers) Regulations 2011, is the only co-regulatory scheme under the Act.

The scheme sets industry-funded annual recycling targets for end-of-life televisions and computer products. Importers and manufacturers of these products fund collection and recycling through membership fees paid through industry-run co-regulatory arrangements. The approved co-regulatory arrangements are administered by Australia and New Zealand Recycling Platform Limited, E-Cycle Solutions, Electronics Product Stewardship Australasia and MRI PSO.

The administrators must ensure that the arrangements achieve the outcomes specified in the Act and the Regulations. These outcomes include providing electronic waste (e-waste) collection services to communities in metropolitan, regional and remote areas of Australia; meeting annual recycling targets; and ensuring that at least 90% of the materials derived from recycling e-waste are made available to be reused in manufacturing new products.

The National Television and Computer Recycling Scheme has recycled in excess of 360,000 tonnes of e-waste since its commencement.

Regulatory (mandatory) product stewardship

Part 4 of the Act provides for mandatory product stewardship, where both requirements and outcomes are prescribed in regulations. No schemes have been established under these provisions of the Act.

Annual product list

Section 108A of the Act requires the minister to publish a list of classes of products for consideration for accreditation or regulation in the following year. The product list was updated in March 2020 to include child car seats, batteries, electrical and electronic products, plastic microbeads, plastic oil containers, and photovoltaic systems.

Publication of this product list gives the community and business certainty about products considered for coverage by the Act and provides the opportunity for them to contribute to analysis and development of options.

Ministers have previously agreed to advance the development of new product stewardship schemes to ensure that end-of-life batteries and photovoltaic solar panels are safely managed. Development of these schemes will continue in 2020–21. This will be supported by a cost benefits and options analysis for batteries, electrical and electronic products, plastic oil containers, and photovoltaic systems, to inform any regulatory options for these schemes.

Further information is available on our website.