Australia’s packaging sector is stuck in an uncomfortable holding pattern – waiting for government to move, while the consequences of inaction grow sharper by the week. The frustration now being voiced across industry bodies, recyclers and environmental NGOs is not ideological, nor speculative. It is grounded in economics, infrastructure reality, and a mounting risk that hard-won progress will unravel.
The warnings coming from the Australian Council of Recycling (ACOR) are stark. We have invested – publicly and privately – in domestic recycling capacity. We have banned the export of plastic waste. We have businesses redesigning packaging for recyclability and recycled content. Yet without regulatory reform to create real demand for locally recycled material, those investments are being stranded. Facilities are operating below capacity, and some are already contemplating scaling back or closing.
This is not a failure of capability. Australian recyclers can process recyclable plastics. The failure is structural – a market flooded with cheap, imported virgin resin, undercutting local recycled content, and no nationally consistent rules to correct that imbalance.
The economic analysis commissioned by ACOR and Australian Packaging Covenant Organisation (APCO) is instructive: a well-designed, fee-based Extended Producer Responsibility scheme would add just 0.1 per cent to product costs – effectively negligible – while delivering billions in economic activity, tens of thousands of jobs, and a dramatic reduction in plastic pollution and emissions. That is not a radical proposition. It is pragmatic reform, aligned with international best practice and long-standing commitments already agreed to by governments.
What makes the current limbo particularly difficult to justify is that the policy direction is not in dispute. Industry, recyclers, brand owners and environmental groups are aligned on the need for mandatory, nationally consistent regulation. The Productivity Commission has now added its voice, explicitly calling for the government to publish its proposed packaging reforms without delay to restore confidence and momentum.
Yet here we are – with legislation still unseen, timelines unclear, and messaging fragmented.
The cost of delay is not neutral. Every time we postpone reform, we defer investment decisions, weaken domestic recycling markets, and allow more material to leak into landfill and the environment. The modelling by ACOR shows utilisation of existing recycling facilities could fall to just 32 per cent within five years without intervention. That is not a theoretical risk – it is a forecast based on current conditions.
There is also a credibility issue at play. Brand owners that have invested early in better packaging design and recycled content are effectively being penalised, while laggards face no meaningful consequences. That is not how you drive systemic change. Regulation is not about punishment – it is about creating a level playing field and rewarding leadership.
Australia has talked for years about transitioning from a “take, make, waste” economy to a circular one. The infrastructure groundwork has been laid. The economic case has been made. The environmental imperative is undeniable.
What is missing now is decisiveness.
Packaging reform does not need to be perfect on day one, but it does need to be real, mandatory, and nationally consistent. Continued delay risks turning a solvable policy challenge into an avoidable industry failure. The sector is ready. The evidence is in. The time for action is well past due.
