The Waste Management and Resource Recovery Association of Australia (WMRR) is calling for stronger national action on packaging and waste after new data from the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (DCCEEW) showed Australia’s waste generation and plastic consumption increased in 2024–25.
The National Waste and Resource Recovery Report 2026 found Australia generated 79 million tonnes of waste during the year, up 4.1 per cent on the previous year. Waste generated per person rose 2.5 per cent.
The national resource recovery rate reached 67.5 per cent, below the 80 per cent target for 2030, while 25.7 million tonnes of waste was disposed of.
The Australian Plastics Flows and Fates Report 2024–25, also by DCCEEW, found Australia consumed 4.2 million tonnes of plastic products and packaging, up from 4.0 million tonnes the previous year. Industry recovered 512,000 tonnes of end-of-life plastics, but the plastics recovery rate was 16 per cent.
WMRR CEO Gayle Sloan said investment in recycling infrastructure was delivering progress, but needed to be matched by measures to reduce waste and create markets for recovered materials.
“The Recycling Modernisation Fund has helped industry invest in Australian sorting and reprocessing. That investment matters, and the national figures show real progress,” Sloan said.
Sloan said Australia needed national rules covering packaging design, producer responsibility and recycled content, alongside measures to create demand for recovered materials.
“Environment Ministers promising another packaging reform plan is not enough to get Australia where it needs to be by 2030,” she said.
“We need a timetable for nationally enforceable packaging design rules, mandatory producer responsibility across packaging, recycled content requirements and procurement that creates dependable markets.”
The plastics data showed around 61 per cent of plastic consumption came from imported finished and semi-finished goods, while the recycled content of imported goods could not be determined.
Sloan said the rules should apply to imported products as well as those made in Australia, and called for action on access to overseas recycling markets while local markets develop.
