- Published:
- Tuesday 16 December 2025 at 9:41 am
The fine, for providing banned single-use plastic straws to customers with takeaway drinks, is for a breach of a regulation that came into force in February 2023, banning a list of single use plastics.
The introduction launched with an information campaign from the Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action (DEECA) and the National Retailers’ Association. The latest research shows a 70% drop in banned single-use plastic items in our environment.
EPA Victoria Western Metropolitan Regional Manager Julia Gaitan says this first fine shows there’s no excuse for a business not knowing its responsibilities.
“The figures show there is widespread compliance amongst retailers, so to find Top Tea not meeting their responsibilities is disappointing,” Ms Gaitan said.
This fine is a sign that EPA will enforce the regulations to keep millions of plastic straws, stirring sticks, cutlery, plates and cups out of the environment. This is the first fine in the two years of this legislation. It shows retailers and the community are on board.
“The ban was introduced because single-use plastics were making up a third of the litter we see in our environment and were difficult and costly to clean up,” she said.
“They were often only useful for a few minutes before they wound up in landfill, or far worse, in the streets, the bush and our waterways and along our beaches.”
Top Tea Melbourne Pty Ltd, based in Wheelers Hill, was fined after EPA received several reports from the public and officers inspected the Swanston St store on 21 October 2025. They found single-use plastic straws and stirrers at the front of the café, where customers could take them.
The single-use plastic items banned from sale or supply in Victoria, are:
- drinking straws
- drink stirrers
- cotton bud sticks
- plastic plates, including paper plates lined with plastic
- cutlery, including knives, forks, spoons, chopsticks, splayds, food picks and sporks
- expanded polystyrene food service items, including plates, cups, bowls, clam shells and covers or lids.
The final exemption to the ban: single-use plastic items attached to products, expires on 1 January 2026. Retailers have been advised to halt the sale of these items, including straws attached to juice boxes and cutlery in instant noodles.
Compostable plastics, such as biodegradable plastics, degradable plastics, renewable plastics, and bioplastics are included in the ban. As litter, they can harm wildlife the same way conventional plastics do. If an item looks or feels like plastic, but claims to be made from PLA, corn, sugarcane, wheat or any other ‘natural’ source it may still be a plastic.
Under the Environment Protection Act 2017 and the Infringements Act 2006, the operator has the right to have the infringement notice reviewed or be considered by a court.
Members of the public can report pollution by calling EPA’s 24-hour hotline on 1300 372 842 or providing details online at epa.vic.gov.au/report-pollution/reporting-pollution
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