As escalating transport costs cascade through to municipal service delivery, the margins for managing waste streams for Australian Councils and their providers become increasingly difficult and cost-prohibitive, which is why product stewardship schemes are vital to drive better waste solutions for local government. 

According to the Waste Management and Resource Recovery Association of Australia (WMRR), metropolitan rates across Victoria, NSW and South Australia are constantly increasing, and now sit at approximately $170 a tonne in these three states. Levies – used to encourage the development of new resource recovery markets and technologies – are currently being used to fund national waste innovation on renewable energy waste and plastic packaging. 

Solar panel waste has been considered in a recent parliamentary inquiry, and the procurement of services to administer a trial is underway. As the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (DCCEW) cites: By 2035, Australia is expected to generate around one million tonnes—about fifty million panels—of solar panel waste. DCCEEW’s $24.7 million solar panel national recycling pilot is much needed foundational work to establish a national solar PV product stewardship scheme.

More challenging is policy review underway around packaging. Australia generates 1.3 million tonnes of plastic packaging, of which only a small portion is recycled. The price dynamics of the plastics supply chain mean that importing virgin or recycled plastic, due to high domestic costs and a lack of mechanisms to drive demand across the country, is hampering plastic remanufacturing.

Consultation led by DCCEEW with the participation of industry networks like the Australian Packaging Covenant Organisation (APCO) has identified that extended producer responsibility (EPR) will facilitate packaging waste reuse. EPR makes brand owners and retailers financially and operationally responsible for managing their products after they are sold, including after consumer use.

EPR relies on a variable fee paid in proportion to the difficulty of recycling (known as eco-modulated) in conjunction with a structure for producers, brand owners and retailers to pay a fee based on the volume of packaging they place on the market. The more sustainable the packaging (e.g. if it’s recyclable and made with recycled content) the lower the fee and/or greater the incentive. 

While work has been done nationally to set a pathway for EPR, its lack of conversion to action ensures – as the Australian Local Government Association points out – major financial and environmental burden for handling packaging across Australian Councils.