With election 2025 looming, Suzanne Toumbourou, Australian Council of Recycling Chief Executive Officer, says a new government must do better.
Anyone working in the recycling industry knows the sector delivers enormous benefits to Australia, contributing almost $19 billion of economic activity, and supporting 95,000 jobs.
It also plays a vital environmental role by driving resource efficiency, cutting carbon emissions, reducing landfill, and driving innovation in sustainable manufacturing and technology.
The Australian Council of Recycling (ACOR) is the peak industry body for the resource recovery, recycling, and remanufacturing sector in Australia. It represents enterprise across the recycling value chain, including Container Deposit Scheme (CDS) operations, kerbside recycling, recovered metal, glass, plastic, paper, organic, tyre, textile, oil and e-waste reprocessing, and construction and demolition recovery.
With the imminent election, now is the time for robust federal policies that boost productivity, enhance Australia’s sovereign capability in resource recovery and remanufacturing, and maximise the impact of recycling infrastructure investments.
Here are our asks for our national leaders:
Strong end markets for Australian recycled material:
Australia imports more finished goods than we export, and much of this material ends up in our recycling streams.
Recovered glass, tyres and plastic must be processed into new products here in Australia. One catch? Domestic markets for these goods are often limited. For example, it is cheaper to import virgin plastic than buy locally sourced recycled material.
Without robust and enduring markets for the materials we produce, recycling is not viable.
The solution? Governments can show the way forward by prioritising procurement of Australian recycling content.
Victoria’s ecologiQ program does this at state level by driving purchase of locally produced recycled material in government projects. A national version of this initiative would make a significant difference.
Clear traceability of materials would also help to ensure no one could pass off materials with uncertain origins as legitimate recycled content.
We also need to streamline export licensing for our recycled products, making it simpler for Australian recyclers to access both domestic and international markets for their products.
National packaging reform:
A key priority for Australia’s circular economy is a unified, national approach to packaging. The current system of state-based schemes and regulations is inefficient and costly for both businesses and consumers.
The Australian Government must accelerate the implementation of national packaging regulations, focusing on design standards that support recyclability and ensuring Australian recycled materials are prioritised.
This should include setting mandatory minimum recycled content thresholds and ensuring traceability to verify recycling claims.
In addition, a mandatory extended producer responsibility scheme with eco-modulated fees is needed to hold producers accountable for the full life cycle of their products, supporting both recycling and the circular economy.
Urgent action to address the hazard of batteries and consumer electronics:
Everyone in the sector knows the huge issues that batteries are causing to recycling. In just the past year, there were more than 10,000 battery-related fire incidents across the waste and recycling system.
The costs are staggering, including over $60 million to replace a major materials recovery facility, and soaring insurance premiums. But the biggest concern is the risk to our workers, who face the daily threat of these combustible and hazardous products.
The only solution is to make all producers of consumer electronics, including loose batteries, responsible for the entire life cycle of their products. Government also needs to ensure a comprehensively accessible system of safe disposal options for all consumers, with strong incentives to do the right thing.
Community education is also essential. Many people simply don’t understand which products contain batteries, or the risks batteries pose to recycling systems and our workers.
ACOR has the perfect vehicle for this: the Recycle Mate app, which directs consumers to the correct place to dispose of all their household waste appropriately.
Product stewardship that ensures genuine recycling:
Product stewardship, where producers take responsibility for their products through their entire life cycle, is a crucial part of reducing waste and strengthening the circular economy.
But the Recycling and Waste Reduction Act 2020 has failed Australia’s recycling sector. Despite its intentions, the Act has fallen short by failing to incentivise genuine recycling outcomes and it doesn’t support demand for domestically produced recycled materials.
We need the Australian Government to strengthen governance and set clear metrics to measure the impact of product stewardship schemes. A ‘trigger framework’ should be established to define when a scheme should be initiated or expanded, improving efficiency, reducing duplication, and fostering market confidence.
Nationally harmonised resource recovery rules to boost productivity:
The patchwork of rules across our states and territories is hindering Australia’s efforts to build the circular economy – in turn risking the potential economic and job creation benefits it can bring.
We urgently need a nationally harmonised resource recovery framework to boost our circular economy productivity.
An independently governed Australian Recyclers Accreditation Program would also help ensure credibility, accountability and quality within the recycling sector.
If the Australian Government urgently acts on these asks, our recycling sector – and the economic, environmental, and social outcomes it delivers – can be supported and nurtured, for the good of us all.
ACOR’s detailed Federal Election platform can be viewed online.
