Waste industry stakeholders have generally welcomed Federal Budget spending measures designed to facilitate a circular economy.
According to the new Parliamentary Library brief, the Australian Council of Recycling (ACR) expressed concerns in 2019 that “4.5 million tonnes of waste could end up in domestic landfill without major public investment”.
The ACR stated that the COAG agreement on waste and recycling needed to be backed up with funding and action to be “transformative” to the sector.
While generally welcoming the Budget measures, the CEO of the Waste Management and Resource Recovery Association of Australia, Gayle Sloan, said there are “still many opportunities around the procurement of recycled materials that should be tapped into by the federal government, as the largest procurer of goods and materials in Australia”.
With bans on the export of unprocessed waste plastic, paper, glass and tyres coming into effect from next year, the Commonwealth has said it is keen to ensure that the potential value in recyclables is not lost through landfilling.
Rather, the value inherent in those waste streams should be captured and put back into manufacturing supply chains.