Australian Organics Recycling Association (AORA) National Executive Officer John McKew says a new report highlights the industry’s growing contribution to Australia’s economy.
The economy and the environment are two persistent and reoccurring themes from the daily news cycle. The last federal election featured both these issues as key policy platforms for the major parties.
Even the COVID-19 pandemic and more recently, the war in Ukraine, are often discussed in light of their impact on the economy and the environment. Nothing is mutually exclusive anymore. That is also true of Australia’s organics recycling industry.
The Australian Organics Recycling Association (AORA) recently released its second edition of the Economic contribution of the Australian Organics Recycling Industry, revealing the growing economic and environmental importance of our industry.
The release of this important piece of analysis, conducted on behalf of AORA by Nick Behrens from the Australian Economic Advocacy Solutions, was supported by the delivery of state and national webinars, hosted by AORA, on the report’s findings.
John McKew, AORA National Executive Officer, says the headline metric from the second edition of the analysis is that in 2021-22 the Australian organic recycling industry (AORI) recycled 7.7 million tonnes of organic material – a 1.4 per cent increase on the previous financial year.
Across the decade, AORI’s recycled tonnage has grown by 2.4 per cent each year and compares to Australia’s average population growth rate across the same time of 1.3 per cent.
John says the noticeably higher amount of organic material recycled is attributed to a range of influences including population and economic growth; technological changes; access to recycling markets; local government collection changes; and Australian and state government waste and carbon reduction policies.
According to the analysis, in 2021-22 Australia is estimated to have produced 14.8 million tonnes of organic waste of which 5.4 million tonnes was sent to landfill, 7.7 million was recycled and 1.6 million tonnes recovered through energy.
Australia’s overall organic material recycling rate was 52.3 per cent (51.5 per cent in 2018-19). South Australia currently has the highest organics material recycling rate at 79.4 per cent, followed by the ACT (68.9 per cent), NSW (57.9 per cent), Victoria (50.3 per cent), Queensland (39.2 per cent) Tasmania (38.8 per cent) and Western Australia (34.5 per cent). The Northern Territory had the lowest organics recycling rate at 19.7 per cent in 2021-22.
Garden organics continues to make up the largest portion of organic materials recycled nationally comprising 41.6 per cent of materials followed by biosolids (18.8 per cent), timber (13.7 per cent) and food organics with 7.2 per cent.
John says results of the latest macro-economic analysis revealed that in 2021-22 the industry provided 5032 jobs to Australian residents, paying over $386 million in wages and salaries and enabled a livelihood to each employee within the industry of $76,650.
The industry has a collective turnover of more than $2.1 billion; sourcing $1.9 billion across its supply chain, investing $156 million in land, buildings, plant and equipment and vehicles each year; and contributing $781 million in industry value add to the Australian economy.
“These economic metrics have collectively and progressively grown since last measured in 2018-19 and over the past decade, growth has been in the order of 29.5 per cent,” John says.
“The considerable economic contributions of the Australian organics recycling industry are without question, important and noteworthy. However, the industry is also contributing significant benefits to the environment.”
The total estimated greenhouse gas savings from organics recycling of materials received in Australia in 2021-22 is about 3.9 million tonnes of CO2-e – equivalent to about 5.8 million trees that would have to be planted to absorb the same amount of CO2 or the greenhouse gas emissions that 902,311 cars would produce in a year.
The second edition of the Economic contribution of the Australian Organics Recycling Industry also modelled what the economic and environmental contribution of the organics recycling industry would be if the current organics recycling rates were increased under four different scenarios – to at least 70 per cent, 80 per cent, 90 per cent and 95 per cent.
Under the 95 per cent scenario, organics recycling businesses across Australia would generate an extra $1.7 billion in sales providing an additional $1.6 billion in supply chain opportunity with an extra $636 million in industry value add towards the Australian economy and provide 4101 extra jobs, paying $314 million in livelihood to everyday Australians.
Furthermore, if all Australian states were able to achieve 95 per cent recycling rate for organic material the Australian environment would benefit from an extra 3,186,401 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions saved – equivalent to 4,764,649 trees planted and 736,441 cars off the road each year.
“The economy and the environment impact all of us, every day,” John says.
“What the second edition of AORA’s Economic contribution of the Australian Organics Recycling Industry shows us is that we all have the capability to contribute in a positive way to our economy and to our environment through organics recycling.
“That can be as simple as making a concerted effort to put the right materials in your organics recycling bin and using Australian produced composts, soil conditioners and mulches on your garden. The Australian organics recycling industry, our economy and our environment will thank you.”
For more information, visit: www.aora.org.au
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