On 12 November 2025, Soft Plastic Stewardship Australia received authorisation from the ACCC for its voluntary industry-led product stewardship scheme for used soft plastic packaging.

The authorisation is approved for 8 years and marks a significant step toward a national solution for managing soft plastic waste in Australia. You can read more on the ACCC authorisation below.

Final authorisation activities (for the full eight-year term) include:

1. SPSA setting and collecting, and the Scheme Participants agreeing to pay, the Scheme Levy and Minimum Levy, which may be passed on by a Scheme Participant as part of their price and may be eco-modulated in the future;

2.  SPSA developing, setting and imposing membership terms and conditions and Scheme Participants agreeing to these terms and conditions;

3. Agreements between SPSA and Coles, Woolworths and ALDI (as required) allow SPSA to take over and expand on the instore collection program administered by members of the Soft Plastics Taskforce, including transferring arrangements with service providers to SPSA;

4. The sharing of operational information and data between SPSA and Coles, Woolworths and ALDI (as required) to facilitate SPSA’s operations, including to transfer the arrangements for the Taskforce instore collection program run by Coles, Woolworths and ALDI to SPSA;

5. SPSA acquires services to operate the Scheme, by entering into, and giving effect to contracts with third parties for the collection, transport, sortation, storage, processing and recycling of used soft plastics and third-party services for invoicing, collecting, managing and auditing of packaging data;

6. SPSA and Scheme Participants agree on communications to consumers and the public in relation to the Scheme, including marketing and educational activities; and

7. SPSA and APCO share market analysis, modelling, research and packaging placed on market data and agreeing communications to APCO members for the purpose of the Scheme.

The ACCC imposed two conditions:

1. No restriction on processing businesses to supply: SPSA must not restrict any recycling processor from supplying services to another customer, noting SPSA has no intention to enter into exclusive arrangements with processors.

2. Reporting requirement: SPSA must publish an annual report on key scheme outcomes. These contained no concerning elements in addition to planned SPSA reporting.