The Waste Management and Resource Recovery Association of Australia (WMRR) has called on governments to focus on packaging design standards and producer responsibility ahead of packaging reform discussions at the Environment Ministers' Meeting in September 2026.
WMRR said harmonising household recycling collections would not address issues caused by packaging that is difficult to reuse, recycle or recover.
"The real issue isn't what Australians put in the recycling bin. It's what manufacturers continue to put on supermarket shelves," said WMRR CEO Gayle Sloan.
"You cannot collect your way out of poor packaging design."
WMRR said nationally consistent recycling collections were important, but should be the final step of a circular packaging system.
"The real challenge is ensuring products are designed to be recovered in the first place," Sloan said.
The organisation is calling for mandatory packaging regulation, including national packaging design standards, the elimination of problematic materials and chemicals, minimum recycled content requirements, producer responsibility across the packaging lifecycle, producer funding for collection and recycling, and investment in Australian recycling and remanufacturing markets.
WMRR said Australia could look to the European Union’s Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR), which introduces packaging design requirements, restrictions on PFAS in food-contact packaging above specified limits, recycled content requirements for plastic packaging, recyclability requirements and greater producer responsibility.
"If a continent made up of 27 sovereign nations can agree on common packaging standards, recycled content requirements and restrictions on harmful chemicals, surely one country with eight states and territories can do the same," Sloan said.
"The conversation shouldn't start with harmonising what goes in the yellow bin. It should start with harmonising what manufacturers are allowed to put on the shelf."
WMRR said Environment Ministers had previously agreed to strengthen packaging regulation and introduce mandatory obligations.
"Harmonising collections without changing packaging design simply means our essential industry will collect more materials that can't be economically recycled and destined for landfill," Sloan said.
"A truly circular economy starts at the design table, not at the kerbside."
Sloan said, "This isn't just waste policy, it's industry policy, climate policy and productivity policy."
"The September Environment Ministers' Meeting is an opportunity to stop managing waste, and start designing it out of the system."
