On Friday, Engineers Australia was invited to give evidence at the influential House of Representatives Standing Committee on Climate Change, Energy, Environment and Water.

The appearance stemmed from our December 2022 submission to the inquiry into plastics pollution into Australia's waterways.

Engineers Australia’s submission includes calls for national alignment on single use bans for all common plastics. It argues for circular economy solutions and management of plastics with a focus on environmental and health risk assessments, lifecycle analysis and data collection. 

Australia produces a staggering 2.5 million tonnes of plastic waste annually. Of this, around 130,000 tonnes leaks into the environment, including our oceans and waterways.  

Damian Ogden, Engineers Australia’s Group Executive Policy and Public Affairs, Simon Koger, Senior Policy Advisor, Climate Change and Engineers Australia Deputy Chair Environmental Engineering College, Kala Senathirajah attended the committee meeting to name key priorities and opportunities for engineering a circular economy in the management of plastics. 

With vast discrepancies in single use plastic bans and handling across state and territories, Mr Koger outlined the importance of striving towards regulatory consistency. 

“How we address this throughout the material lifecycle is of extreme importance. We need more data to understand risks to the environment and human health, within a consistent regulatory framework that promotes the principles of a circular economy.” 

To that end, during the hearing, Engineers Australia flagged opportunities for Government to enable connections, collaborations and partnerships between academic research, industry developments and pilot project commercialisation.  

In his presentation to the committee, Damian Ogden highlighted the importance of creating circular economy and climate solutions which link to the skills agenda and the strong pipeline Engineers Australia is working to create in STEM and to encourage our next generation of engineers.  

“This is one of the things I think, that if you're a young person who is motivated around addressing climate change or the issue with plastics, engineering is a profession in which you can work towards solving these critical issues. 

“As the peak body for the profession, we have 115,00 members with incredible ideas and solutions to these problems. But we urgently need more engineers in this country, and we need to think of programs and initiatives at a government level that promote STEM and the ‘E’ in STEM which is engineering,” he told the committee. 

Following the public hearings and briefings, the committee will use the evidence provided to draw conclusions and recommendations that will be presented to Federal Parliament. Parliament will then be required to provide a written response to the recommendations made in the committee’s report.

Engineers Australia will continue to work closely with federal, state and territory ministers on the issue of plastics and provide the knowledge and ideas of our membership to help form solutions.   

CEO Romilly Madew AO currently sits on the Federal Government’s Circular Economy Ministerial Advisory Group.