Australia’s first ban on single-use plastic coffee cups comes into effect in Western Australia

HHundreds of millions of coffee cups are expected to be saved from landfill as the country’s first ban on plastic-lined takeaway cups comes into effect.

Western Australia on Friday became the first state to introduce a ban on non-compostable single-use coffee cups, threatening companies that don’t comply with steep fines.

Instead, cafes can use compostable paper cups, which are excluded from the ban, or encourage customers to bring their own, WA Environment Minister Reece Whitby said.

“This is an excellent move for the environment because we know that plastic persists in the environment for decades and decades,” he told reporters on Saturday.

The change is part of a wider push by the Cook government to reduce the prevalence of single-use plastics in the economy.

On Friday, disposable plastic containers with lids, such as sushi containers and bento boxes, were also banned.

A ban on several items, including microbeads and cotton buds, came into effect in 2023, while the sale of plastic vegetable bags and takeaway containers with lids will be banned from September.

Mr Whitby said more than a billion single-use plastic items, including more than 154 million coffee cups, will be saved from landfill every year.

Friday’s change came after a 12-month consultation process with companies, which the government says are broadly supportive of the changes and are already using environmentally friendly alternatives to single-use plastics.

It hopes to keep the community on side by easing bans with a ‘common sense’ approach to enforcement.

“It’s all about education,” Mr Whitby said.

‘We are allowing cafes who may have old stocks of compostable coffee cups to trade them in.’

But authorities also have a big stick to discourage those who consistently flout restrictions, with fines of up to $5,000 for individuals or $25,000 for companies.

The WA government claims the ban will result in 154 million coffee cups being saved from landfill every year.

The latest bans come just in time for Clean Up Australia Day on Sunday, which has urged dozens of volunteers to remove plastic coffee cups from parks and waterways since 1990.

During fiscal year 2023, the group’s volunteers cleaned up nearly 13,000 to-go coffee cups and ranked them among the top 10 most common wastes found.

Increased social activity in the wake of COVID-19 has likely contributed to the increase in coffee cup waste, Clean Up Australia Day said in its annual Litter Report.

While South Australia has committed to removing the cups from sale in September, progress has been slower in the more populous states, with NSW and Victoria among the jurisdictions not yet committed to a ban.

“Western Australia is leading the way,” Mr Whitby crowed.

‘We are the leading state in the transition from single-use plastics.’