A lack of leadership at a federal level has failed to drive change to minimise and recycle waste, finds a Senate inquiry.
“Current and historic federal policy framework has failed to achieve its objectives,” says Senator Peter Whish-Wilson – chair of the Environment and Communications References Committee, established last year to explore waste reduction and recycling policies.
During the 14-month inquiry – the fourth of its kind in recent years – evidence was raised, and questions were asked as to why Australia hasn’t moved beyond voluntary or industry-regulated national recycling schemes to government-regulated schemes that hold the big producers and retailers of waste to account.
“It is telling that respective federal environment ministers over recent years have all threatened to step in and regulate different waste streams if industry doesn’t get its act together – but never have,” says Whish-Wilson in the Senate report No Time to Waste.
“Handing responsibility to the states to clean up different waste streams has also been all too easy, and a cop out for the federal government,” he adds.
Despite government “talking a big game”, the inquiry heard progress toward legislative and regulatory intervention has been slow leaving many in the waste management and resource recovery industry “feeling frustrated, sceptical and nervous about whether this will ever happen”.
“They were rightfully asking why we still kick the can down the road and have not taken the legislative or regulatory action to fix a clearly broken system,” says Whish-Wilson, a Tasmanian Greens senator.
The inquiry – which concluded last month – heard government inaction goes against the wishes of the waste management industry, which has long advocated for change urging the Commonwealth to mandate extended producer responsibility schemes for different waste streams – an EPR is a policy approach where producers, importers, or sellers are held accountable for the environmental impact of their products, especially at end of life.
The time for strong regulatory and legislative action is now
Plastics are a particularly pernicious problem. Nearly three million tonnes of plastic waste was generated in Australia in 2022-23 – only 12.5 per cent of which was recovered.
While there have been several initiatives implemented over recent years to reduce the volume of packaging and plastics on the market and moving through waste streams, the committee heard how a lack of appropriate infrastructure, incentives and enforcement mechanisms have hindered progress against various waste reduction, recycling and packaging targets.
Having listened to industry and other stakeholders, the committee made 19 recommendations to tackle what it described as Australia’s waste crisis. Among them:
- the Australian Government legislate a Circular Economy Act and implement a full circular economy framework aimed at effectively supporting Australia’s waste management and resource recovery sectors
- the Productivity Commission examine the role of economic settings and financial incentives in driving circular economy outcomes
- the establishment of a cross-jurisdictional circular economy action taskforce to oversight harmonised waste prevention and recycling practices
- the Australian Government play a lead role to coordinate agreement with the state and territory governments to fast-track the national harmonisation of collection, recovery and processing of soft plastics
- environment ministers, together with the Australian Local Government Association, develop an Environmentally Sustainable Procurement Policy to be applied to federal, state, territory and local government procurement processes.
Implementing the committee’s recommendations in the next term of parliament “must be a priority”, says Whish-Wilson. “There is no more time to waste. The time for strong federal government regulatory and legislative action is now.”
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