Australia got through 4.2 million tonnes of plastic products and packaging in 2024-25, the highest figure on record. The Australian Marine Conservation Society broke down what that actually means, and where it's all ending up.
The numbers, in Sydney Harbour Bridges
According to AMCS, Australians are now getting through roughly 80,000 tonnes of plastic every week, described as "the equivalent weight of one-and-a-half Sydney Harbour Bridges." Broken down further, that's about 38 kilograms of plastic packaging waste generated every second, nationally.
Where it's landing
Of that total, AMCS points to 1.2 million tonnes of plastic packaging waste generated annually, much of it packaging designed to be used once and thrown away. The figures are drawn from the federal government's own Australian Plastics Flows and Fates Report 2024-25, so this isn't a guess. It's the government's own accounting, cited in AMCS's media release of 23 September 2026.
What AMCS wants to happen next
AMCS's Plastics Campaigns Manager Cip Hamilton is calling on the federal government to deliver mandatory national packaging laws, including design standards and corporate packaging responsibility requirements, rather than voluntary targets. That's a pointed ask, given the Albanese Government's earlier promise on mandatory recycled packaging content was quietly shelved earlier this month.
We've written before about what actually happens to your empty bathroom plastic, and this record year is more of the same story, just bigger.
We ditched plastic packaging before it was a stat. Feels like a pretty good thing now.