Third time lucky?

Over the past five years Fremantle Council has been trying to implement a local law to ban businesses from providing single-use non-biodegradable plastic bags to customers. This initiative evolved from a strong community campaign, where the council received a petition of over 1,000 signatures requesting the removal of plastic bags from the City of Fremantle.

The original local law was submitted to the Joint Standing Committee of WA in 2013, however was disallowed at this time. The reason cited for this disallowance motion was a mandatory charge for issuing a bag the City had included in the local law. The City removed this charge, and resubmitted the local law to Parliament in early 2015. In October 2015, the plastic bag local law was disallowed by the Legislative Council for the second time.

In April 2017, council adopted the Plastic Bag Reduction Local Law for the third time.

With a change in state government has come fresh hope for not only the local law being approved, but the potential for a statewide ban to bring WA into line with several other states and territories.

Follow our progress by checking this page for updates.