Australia's first plastic credits scheme targets banana industry waste

Australia's first plastic credits scheme has been launched to target banana industry waste, but the recycling industry is calling for scrutiny.

The program developed by environmental organisation GreenCollar collects banana bunch bags in banana-growing regions of northern Queensland for recycling or landfill disposal.

Farmers earn a plastic credit for every tonne of bags collected in the voluntary program, which can be sold to companies wanting to invest in sustainable waste management.

General manager for operations at GreenCollar Anjali Nelson says driving investment into recycling in regional areas is the project's aim.

"The idea is that you can measure plastics that you have removed from the environment or plastic that you have sent for recycling that would not have otherwise been sent for recycling," she said.

"Those plastic credits can then be provided and sold to corporate partners, government agencies who are looking to incentivise the circularity of plastic waste."

Thirty-two plastic credits have been issued to two banana operators who were involved in the pilot.

Ms Nelson says there aren't any buyers for the credits yet but that there is "significant interest".

Local waste management organisation MAMS Group was doing the collection, but not all the banana bunch bags were recycled.

"Where we can find appropriate recyclers for all those bags, we are sending them off to recycling," Ms Nelson said.

"Where we can't find appropriate recyclers, then they're going to engineered landfill so that they are safely disposed of.

"The priority is to get them to recycling."

Credits for landfill 'not conventional'

Australian Council of Recycling chief executive Suzanne Toumbourou said she endorsed recycling efforts in regional areas but when plastic was being put in landfill it was "hard to tell" what environmental change was being made.

"It's interesting that there would be ... any credit applied to material that does go to landfill given that that is the right place for it to go," she said.

"It's illegal to pollute and the credit for not doing that would be something that is not conventional.

"Abiding with the law is just the absolute minimum that any organisation or person should do."

Ms Toumbourou wants to see "rigour" applied to any environmental claims.

"[ACOR] was very pleased to see the ACCC's announcement that they would be applying a lot more scrutiny to environmental claims made in Australia by business," she said.

"This of course fits into that context.

"We want to make sure that we're truly rewarding and recognising really great environmental, sustainable outcomes ... we need to distinguish them from initiatives that don't deliver those good outcomes."

The scheme has received its verification from American environmental standards company Verra.

A spokesperson for the company said two other projects were currently registered with its plastic waste reduction program and one of them, in Thailand, was the only other scheme issued with plastic credits.

They said credits were only given to projects that complied with all their requirements and had their collection and/or recycling practices verified by a third-party auditor.

Banana industry welcomes scheme

The Australian Banana Growers Council worked with GreenCollar throughout the project's development.

Research and development manager Rosie Godwin said most banana bunch bag waste was landfilled or stockpiled farms, and occasionally sent for recycling.

She said the industry wanted to establish a circular economy.

"The main thing we want to do in the first stage is to get the plastics off-farm and aggregated so that we can do something with it," she said.

"It's our goal in the industry that all of that plastic will end up getting recycled in north Queensland and repurposed into products that can be used in our industry."

Federal minister wants integrity in environment schemes

Federal agriculture minister Murray Watt said the government supported initiatives offering farmers the potential to reduce their environmental footprint.

He said financial incentives could encourage farmers to make environmentally conscious decisions.

"This scheme is an interesting one that I think deserves exploration," he said.

"I'm happy to have a look at that scheme in a bit more detail to see whether it needs further regulation.

"We obviously want these things to have integrity and if further regulations are required then we'd be happy to do that.