Start by auditing every disposable packaging item your business supplies, including shopping bags, takeaway items, mailers, protective materials and promotional packaging. Check the current rules in each state or territory where you operate, then prioritise eliminating unnecessary items, introducing reusable systems where practical, and selecting fit-for-purpose paper or other compliant alternatives. Test each replacement for product protection, customer use and available disposal pathways before ordering it at scale.
Paper is not automatically the best environmental option in every situation. The right replacement depends on the product, the packaging's job, and what happens to it after use.
Moving Away From Plastic Requires More Than Swapping Bags
Changing shopping bags is usually the most visible step in a plastic transition, but most businesses still use plastic well beyond the checkout counter: in product wrapping, ecommerce mailers, bubble wrap, void fill, takeaway containers, cutlery, straws, cups and lids, stickers and labels, garment covers, pallet wrap and individual product packaging.
The right replacement for any of these depends on the product type, its weight, moisture and grease exposure, transit conditions, food-safety requirements, whether reuse is realistic, what your local collection systems can actually process, the legislation in the state or territory where you're supplying it, and how your customers behave once they have the packaging in hand.
What Is a Single-Use Plastic Item?
A single-use plastic product is generally one designed to be used once, or for a short period, before disposal. The legal definition and the specific products it covers differ by jurisdiction, but common examples across Australian bans include lightweight shopping bags, straws, stirring sticks, cutlery, plates, expanded-polystyrene food-service products, some takeaway containers, plastic cotton-bud sticks, balloon sticks and certain barrier bags.
One point trips up a lot of businesses: products labelled biodegradable, degradable or compostable may still be legally treated as plastic. Some jurisdictions expressly include biodegradable, degradable, compostable or bioplastic versions of prohibited items. Victoria and NSW, for example, both make clear that labelling a prohibited item “compostable” does not automatically make it compliant.
Are Single-Use Plastics Banned Across Australia?
Australia does not have one simple, uniform list covering every business and jurisdiction. Every state and territory has introduced its own restrictions, but the items covered, the enforcement dates and the exemptions all differ. A product permitted in one state may be restricted in another. Some bans cover items made only partly from plastic. Some exemptions exist for health, disability or safety reasons, but existing stock is not automatically exempt once an enforcement date passes, and giving a banned item away for free is generally still covered.
Victoria's ban, for example, applies broadly to businesses, retailers, charities, market stalls, schools and food outlets, including situations where a prohibited item is given away rather than sold.
State and Territory Restrictions at a Glance
Every state and territory now restricts at least the core group of items: lightweight shopping bags, straws, cutlery, stirrers, plates and bowls, and expanded polystyrene food-service items. Beyond that core, the details genuinely differ, and they keep changing. Western Australia's Stage 2 measures are being rolled out in stages through to October 2026. South Australia continues adding highly specific product restrictions, including small plastic soy sauce containers under 30ml and plastic cutlery or straws attached to packaging, both banned from September 2025. Victoria's ban, uniquely, extends to compostable and biodegradable plastics.
Rather than reproducing a full legal breakdown here, which would go out of date quickly and duplicate content elsewhere on this site, refer to Smartbag's current plastic restrictions by Australian state for a state-by-state summary, or go directly to the relevant government authority:
- New South Wales: NSW Environment Protection Authority
- Victoria: EPA Victoria
- Queensland: Queensland Government single-use plastics guidance
- South Australia: Replace the Waste
- Western Australia: WA Plastics Ban (Plan for Plastics)
- Tasmania, ACT and Northern Territory: relevant state or territory environment department
Do not treat any product as definitively legal or illegal in a given state without checking current guidance immediately before ordering.
Start With a Business Packaging Audit
This is the most useful thing a business can do before buying a single alternative product.
List every packaging item. Carry bags, takeaway bags, product sleeves, mailing bags, boxes, void fill, bubble wrap, tape, labels, cups, lids, straws, cutlery, food containers, trays, garment covers, pallet wrap and promotional packaging.
Record the material. Plastic type where known, paper, cardboard, mixed materials, coatings or linings, adhesives, compostable plastics, bioplastic, expanded polystyrene, fabric, or metal and glass components.
Record its purpose. Does it protect the product? Is it legally required? Is it used for hygiene? Is it purely decorative? Does it provide tamper evidence? Is it needed for carrying? Or is it included only because it has always been used?
Check current rules. Where the item is supplied, the applicable restriction, the enforcement date, any exemption, supplier documentation, and the replacement deadline.
Measure usage. Units used per month, cost per unit, staff application time, damage rate, customer complaints, remaining stock and storage requirements.
Prioritise changes. Focus first on items that are already prohibited, about to become prohibited, unnecessary, difficult to recover, used in high volumes, frequently littered, easily replaced, or expensive to manage.
Follow the Packaging Hierarchy
Work through this order rather than jumping straight to substitution:
- Avoid unnecessary packaging
- Reduce the amount of material used
- Reuse packaging where practical
- Replace problematic materials
- Design for recovery through available recycling or composting systems
- Provide clear disposal instructions
Substitution alone does not necessarily reduce total waste. Removing an unnecessary internal sleeve may do more good than replacing it with a paper one. A reusable transport crate can outperform repeated disposable packaging entirely. A right-sized box needs less void fill in the first place. APCO's Sustainable Packaging Guidelines encourage businesses to think about packaging design and recovery as part of a broader circular-economy approach, rather than focusing on swapping one material for another.
Paper Bags as an Alternative to Plastic Shopping Bags
Paper bags tend to suit fashion retail, gifts, pharmacies, beauty stores, bookshops, cafés, bakeries, takeaway counters, events, click and collect, and lightweight grocery purchases.
Before choosing a format, consider the product's dimensions and combined weight, gusset depth, handle type, moisture and grease exposure, sharp corners, whether the bag needs to survive reuse, branding requirements, storage, and how the customer should dispose of it.
Smartbag's twisted-handle paper bags, takeaway bags, grocery bags without handles, rope-handle bags, wine and bottle bags, laminated bags and custom-printed bags each suit different combinations of these factors.
One important limitation: not every paper bag is plastic-free, recyclable, biodegradable, compostable, made from recycled content, or FSC-certified. Those claims depend on the precise specification, including any coatings, inks, handles, laminates and adhesives used on that particular product. Check the specification of the exact item before making any of these claims to a customer.
Reusable Bags as an Alternative
Cotton totes, canvas bags, jute bags and other durable woven bags are a genuine alternative to disposable carry bags, but "reusable" only describes intended repeated use. The actual environmental benefit depends on whether customers reuse the bag enough times to offset its higher production footprint.
Before choosing a reusable format, weigh up durability, washability, weight capacity, print longevity, storage, cost, the number of uses realistically expected, whether the customer actually needs another tote, and what happens to it at end of life. Avoid calling a tote bag sustainable purely because it is labelled reusable; that claim depends on how often it is actually used.
Alternatives to Plastic Ecommerce Mailers
Paper mailers suit clothing, soft goods, books and other non-fragile items, but check water exposure, sealing method, tear resistance and whether the format holds up for returns.
Mailing boxes suit fragile products, multiple-item orders, structured goods, gifts and anything needing crush protection. Smartbag's mailing boxes come in plain and custom-printed formats.
Padded paper mailers, such as Smartbag's honeycomb padded mailers, suit small products, books, accessories and items needing light cushioning.
Right-sized boxes reduce void fill requirements, packing time, storage needs and can improve product stability in transit, though guaranteed freight-cost or carbon-emission savings should not be claimed without supporting data specific to your operation.
Alternatives to Bubble Wrap and Plastic Void Fill
Options include honeycomb paper wrap, corrugated paper wrap, recycled paper void fill, moulded fibre inserts, cardboard dividers, shredded clean cardboard and reusable protective sleeves, alongside simply right-sizing the packaging so less filler is needed at all.
Newspaper and tissue paper are sometimes suggested as universal bubble-wrap replacements, but neither is a like-for-like substitute for every product. Newspaper can transfer ink onto light-coloured or delicate items, and tissue paper generally does not provide meaningful impact protection for fragile products. Test any alternative for drop protection, abrasion resistance, how much the product can move inside the parcel, moisture exposure, compression, sharp edges, and how it presents when the customer opens the box, before rolling it out at scale.
Alternatives for Takeaway and Food-Service Businesses
Paper takeaway bags, fibre-based trays, paperboard containers, reusable container programs, reusable cutlery, customer opt-in cutlery, bulk condiment dispensers and napkins provided only when requested can all reduce single-use plastic in a food business.
Food packaging still has to be chosen for food-contact suitability, heat, oil and grease resistance, moisture, leakage, ventilation, transport duration, allergen management and local legal requirements. Do not choose an item purely because it appears plastic-free: plastic-lined paper products can still fall within some legal bans or require special disposal. Victoria, for instance, includes paper plates lined with plastic among its banned single-use plastic plates, with that specific rule commencing 1 November 2024.
Compostable Plastic Is Not Automatically a Simple Solution
Compostable plastics can require commercial composting rather than home composting, may be excluded from conventional kerbside recycling, can contaminate recycling streams if customers put them in the wrong bin, are often hard for customers to identify correctly, and may still be covered by some state bans regardless of certification.
Be precise with terminology rather than using these words interchangeably: biodegradable, degradable, compostable, home compostable, commercially compostable and plant-based plastic all mean different things, and a certification such as AS4736 (commercial composting) or AS5810 (home composting) applies to a specific product, not to a category of material in general.
What Should Businesses Do With Old Plastic Stock?
Confirm first whether the item can still legally be supplied. Do not assume old stock is exempt just because it was purchased before an enforcement date; several states, including Western Australia, are explicit that banned items cannot be supplied after the applicable date even if they were bought earlier.
From there: contact the relevant state regulator if you are unsure, ask your supplier whether a take-back option exists, check current council or commercial recycling services in your area, separate clean materials by type where required, and keep records of how the stock was disposed of or recovered. Do not donate a banned item into another jurisdiction without checking that jurisdiction's rules, and do not represent disposal as recycling unless it genuinely is.
How to Evaluate a Packaging Alternative
Before committing to a replacement, work through these questions:
- Compliance: Is it permitted where the product will actually be supplied?
- Function: Does it protect, carry or contain the product properly?
- Material: Is it single-material, or a harder-to-recover mixed construction?
- Reuse: Can it realistically be used again?
- Recovery: Is a suitable collection system available to your customers?
- Labelling: Can customers understand how to dispose of it?
- Cost: What is the full material and operational cost, not just the unit price?
- Labour: Does it add packing or service time?
- Storage: Does it need more space than the current option?
- Supply: Can the supplier provide it reliably at the volumes you need?
- Evidence: Are any environmental claims about it actually documented?
- Customer experience: Is it convenient and fit for purpose from the customer's side?
Test Before Changing Your Entire Packaging Range
Pick one high-volume item, shortlist two or three alternatives, request samples, and test them with your actual product rather than a mock-up. Get staff feedback, review any customer complaints or returns, verify the disposal and compliance information holds up, and measure packing time and damage rate before you scale the order.
This trial step is what stops a business from ordering a large quantity of packaging that doesn't fit, tears, leaks, adds too much labour, confuses customers, can't be recovered locally, or turns out not to comply after all.
How to Communicate Packaging Changes to Customers
Stick to factual, specific statements: "We have removed the unnecessary plastic sleeve," "this bag is made from 100% recycled paper" (only once verified), "reuse this bag where practical," "cutlery is available on request," or "return this container to participating locations."
Avoid vague claims such as planet friendly, guilt free, zero impact, completely sustainable, environmentally safe or 100% green. These phrases are exactly the kind of unsupported claim the ACCC has warned businesses about under greenwashing enforcement. Keep supplier evidence on file for any environmental claim you make.
Use Clear Disposal Labelling
The Australasian Recycling Label is the standard reference point for telling Australian customers how to dispose of packaging correctly, but bear in mind that local council collection systems differ, so something that is technically recyclable is not always accepted in every household's kerbside bin. Where relevant, explain how to separate components, remove tape or handles, or use a composting or store return program.
APCO has identified inconsistent definitions, inconsistent collection systems and unclear disposal guidance as ongoing barriers to better packaging recovery in Australia, which is part of why a label alone doesn't guarantee an item ends up recycled.
Plastic Free July as an Implementation Window
Plastic Free July began with a small group of Western Australians and has since grown into an international annual campaign. It's a useful annual prompt rather than a strategy in itself: a good time to run a packaging audit, remove one unnecessary item, trial paper carry bags, introduce opt-in cutlery, test paper protective wrap, review staff-room disposables, ask suppliers for material declarations, update disposal labels, and record usage before and after the change so you can actually measure the impact.
Packaging Changes by Business Type
Retail store: shopping bags, garment covers, tissue paper, product sleeves, gift packaging. Consider paper carry bags, reusable totes, paper tissue, reusable garment bags and reduced wrapping generally.
Ecommerce retailer: mailers, bubble wrap, void fill, tape, returns packaging. Consider paper mailers, mailing boxes, honeycomb wrap, paper void fill and right-sized packaging.
Café or takeaway business: takeaway bags, containers, cutlery, straws, condiment packaging, cups and lids. Consider paper takeaway bags, reusable serviceware, cutlery on request, bulk dispensers and compliant fibre-based containers.
Market stall: carry bags, product wrapping, sampling containers, price labels. Consider kraft paper bags, reusable totes, paper wraps and customer-brought containers where suitable.
Events business: goodie bags, cups, cutlery, name-badge holders, promotional merchandise, signage. Consider paper or reusable event bags, reusable drinkware systems, digital programs, reusable badge holders and fewer promotional products overall.
Common Plastic-Transition Mistakes
Assuming every plastic item is banned everywhere, or that every plastic alternative is automatically compliant. Replacing plastic with excessive amounts of paper instead of reducing volume first. Calling compostable plastic recyclable. Ignoring plastic coatings on otherwise paper-based products. Ordering stock before checking the rules in the state it will be supplied to. Using vague "eco-friendly" claims. Failing to test strength or moisture resistance before scaling up. Ignoring food-contact requirements. Purchasing too much replacement stock. Giving customers incorrect disposal instructions. Treating technical recyclability as the same thing as local recyclability. Forgetting ecommerce protective packaging when auditing. Overlooking labels, tape and adhesives as separate materials. Choosing a reusable product that customers are genuinely unlikely to reuse. Relying on a recycling scheme that has since closed. Assuming old stock can still be legally supplied. Copying compliance advice written for a different state.
Plastic Packaging Transition Checklist
Compliance: jurisdictions identified, current official guidance reviewed, banned items identified, enforcement dates recorded, exemptions verified, supplier evidence retained.
Packaging audit: every item listed, monthly usage recorded, material composition checked, purpose documented, unnecessary items identified.
Alternative selection: reuse considered first, paper and other alternatives compared, product samples obtained, strength tested, moisture tested, food suitability checked, disposal route confirmed.
Implementation: staff trained, old stock handled legally, customer instructions updated, website descriptions updated, packaging claims checked, supplier documentation filed.
Review: damage rate monitored, customer feedback reviewed, packaging usage measured, cost compared, regulations checked regularly, claims updated whenever the underlying product changes.
Australian Packaging Context
APCO's most recent Consumption and Recovery Data (2023-24) shows Australia is still short of its National Packaging Targets: 86% of packaging is classified as reusable, recyclable or compostable against a 100% target, 20% of plastic packaging is recycled or composted against a 70% target, average post-consumer recycled content sits at 44% against a 50% target, and problematic and unnecessary single-use plastics have been reduced by 46% from the 2017-18 baseline. The targets originally carried a 2025 deadline; APCO has confirmed they will not be fully met on that timeline and a revised date is being established. These figures will need updating whenever this article is next reviewed, as APCO releases new data annually.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are single-use plastics banned everywhere in Australia? No single national ban covers every item. Every state and territory has its own restrictions, and the specific products covered, enforcement dates and exemptions differ between jurisdictions.
Do plastic bans differ between Australian states? Yes, significantly. A product that is compliant in one state, such as a compostable plastic item, may be banned outright in another, such as Victoria. Always check the specific jurisdiction you're supplying to.
Are compostable plastic bags included in plastic bans? In some states, yes. Victoria's ban explicitly includes biodegradable, degradable and compostable plastics. Other states have specific exemptions for certified compostable products, so this needs checking state by state.
Are paper bags a suitable alternative to plastic bags? Generally yes for shopping and carry applications, provided the bag is matched to the product's weight, size and moisture exposure. Paper is not automatically the right choice for every packaging job.
Are paper bags always recyclable? Not automatically. Recyclability depends on the specific bag's coatings, laminates, handles and adhesives. Check the individual product specification rather than assuming.
What is the best alternative to plastic shopping bags? There isn't a single best option. Paper bags, reusable totes and customer-supplied bags all work depending on the product, the brand experience wanted, and how often a bag is likely to be reused.
What can ecommerce businesses use instead of plastic mailers? Paper mailers, mailing boxes and padded paper mailers, chosen according to the fragility and shape of the product, with the box or mailer right-sized to reduce void fill.
What can businesses use instead of bubble wrap? Honeycomb paper wrap, corrugated paper wrap, moulded fibre inserts or right-sized packaging that needs less filler in the first place. Test any option against the actual product before scaling up.
Can cafés use plastic-lined paper containers? It depends on the state and the specific product. Some jurisdictions restrict plastic-lined paper plates and containers even though they look paper-based. Check current rules before ordering in bulk.
What should businesses do with banned plastic stock? Confirm it can still legally be supplied, don't assume old stock is exempt, contact your supplier about take-back options, and check current council or commercial recycling services rather than relying on a scheme that may have since closed.
Are reusable bags always better than disposable bags? Not automatically. The environmental benefit depends on how many times the bag is actually reused, which depends on durability and whether the customer keeps and uses it.
How can a business conduct a packaging audit? List every packaging item used, record its material and purpose, check current rules for where it's supplied, measure usage and cost, then prioritise changes based on compliance risk and practicality.
What packaging claims require evidence? Any specific environmental claim, such as recycled content percentage, compostability certification or FSC status, should be backed by supplier documentation you can produce if asked.
What is Plastic Free July? An annual campaign, founded in Western Australia, encouraging individuals and businesses to reduce single-use plastic for the month of July. It's a useful prompt for a packaging review rather than a compliance requirement.
How often should packaging compliance be reviewed? At least annually, and whenever a business starts supplying a new state or territory, since restrictions and enforcement dates continue to change.
Can a business give away a banned plastic item for free? Generally no. Most state bans cover items given away as well as items sold, so "free" does not exempt a business from compliance.
Are biodegradable and compostable the same? No. Biodegradable simply means a material will break down eventually, with no defined timeframe or conditions. Compostable, when certified, means it breaks down within a specific timeframe under defined composting conditions.
How should customers dispose of paper packaging? This depends on the specific product's coatings and components. Check the Australasian Recycling Label on the packaging where available, and note that local council kerbside systems vary.