Does government regulation play catchup?

It seems to me, albeit subjectively, that government regulation is often playing catchup to the development and evolution of an industry.

This is not surprising or problematic, unless the regulation is an overreach to the current state of play within the industry. The organics recycling industry is a good case study of this observation.

Federally we have had ambitious targets set for the resource recovery sector, including organics, for Australia to transition to a safe circular economy.

The National Waste Policy Action Plan has seven targets to reduce Australia’s waste and improve our recovery of resources. Target six is to halve the amount of organic waste sent to landfill for disposal by 2030.

This is a very worthy target, as they all are, and we, the Australian organics recycling sector, understands implicitly the importance of diverting organics away from landfill.

This is good for the environment and supports an industry – the Australian organics recycling sector generates 5359 jobs to Australian residents, paying over $421 million in wages and salaries per annum.

The sector invests $216 million in land, buildings, plant and equipment and vehicles each year and has a collective industry turnover of $2.6 billion per annum.

The environmental benefits are also impressive. The total estimated greenhouse gas savings from organics recycling of materials received in Australia in 2023-24 is about 3.9 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent.

The Australian organics recycling sector is developing rapidly and the commercial forces behind it are investing to grow the industry to meet the targets set by government and increasingly, the demands of the public for a more sustainable future.

This is a good outcome unless government steps in too quickly to regulate that same industry. We all expect, reasonably, for governments to protect us, the environment and our way of life. That includes protection from chemicals of concern that exist, for example, the collection of broadly termed per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) compounds.

As an industry, the Australian organics recycling sector concurs.

The problem is when that government regulation is playing catchup to the industry’s growth and development and overreaches, sometimes without the right information, data, research or consultation to support that regulation.

The outcome of that is an industry that slows, investment fades and economic and environmental outcomes become compromised.

This disturbance to an industry can be felt quickly and can take a long time to recover from.

The best regulation will not disrupt an industry already delivering strong benefits, it will ultimately benefit that industry, improving outcomes while ensuring the right protections remain in place and the best way to achieve that is to make certain the industry is front and centre to the development of that regulation.

For more information, visit: aora.org.au/