Plastic Reduction and Circular Economy Act 2021 (NSW)

Plastic Reduction and Circular Economy Act 2021 No 31

An Act to prohibit certain items and establish a product stewardship framework for brand owners of certain products; and for related purposes.

Part 1 Preliminary

1 Name of Act This Act is the Plastic Reduction and Circular Economy Act 2021.

2 Commencement (1) This Act commences on the date of assent to this Act, except as provided by subsections (2) and (3). (2) Schedule 1, section 2 commences on the first day of the first month occurring 6 whole months after the commencement of section 3. (3) Schedule 1, sections 3–5 commence on 1 November 2022.

3 Objects of Act (1) The objects of this Act are as follows— (a) to protect the environment and human health, (b) to promote and support the principles of a circular economy, (c) to support material circularity through design, production, use, re-use, collection, recycling, reprocessing and end-of-life management, (d) to ensure responsibility for products across their life cycle, (e) to reduce the impact, or potential impact, of items, waste from items and waste material on the environment and human health. (2) In this section— principles of a circular economy include the following principles— (a) valuing resources and minimising the use of virgin materials by ensuring materials continue to circulate in the economy in a way that— (i) minimises the risk of harm to human health and the environment, and (ii) considers the waste hierarchy, (b) keeping resources in use and designing out waste, pollution and resource inefficiency, including through innovative systems, technologies and business models, (c) ecologically sustainable and regenerative management of resources and systems. waste hierarchy is a reference to the hierarchy set out in the Waste Avoidance Resource and Recovery Act 2001, section 3(b).