Waste & Recycling

Australia is generating more waste than ever, with corporate practices and weak regulations driving the problem.

Reducing waste at its source is the most effective way to protect the environment, support a sustainable economy, and prevent further harm. Without mandatory reduction targets, businesses lack the incentive to minimise waste, leaving individuals to bear the burden.

The Greens are committed to reducing waste, transitioning to a circular economy, and empowering people with the tools and knowledge to make sustainable choices.

The Greens' plan:

• Reduce waste at its source by investing $50 million in research and pilot programs for avoidance, reuse, and repair, including setting a National Plastic Packaging Reduction Target of 20% by 2030.
• Empower consumers with informed choices through a national Repairability Star Rating label system, providing product repairability and durability transparency.
• Promote awareness and education with a $3 million national advertising campaign to support the Repairability Rating Label rollout.

Batteries and embedded batteries in incorrectly disposed of e-waste items are wreaking havoc on the recycling and resource recovery sector.

With over 10,000 battery-related fires annually in Australia, the waste and recycling sector faces skyrocketing insurance costs, environmental harm, and growing operational risks. Years of government inaction have left this crisis unaddressed, threatening the viability of this essential industry.

The Greens are focused on creating a safe, sustainable recycling sector by removing batteries from waste streams and ensuring safe disposal options nationwide.

The Greens' plan:

• Establish a national battery collection network with $50 million to fill gaps in accessible disposal points and keep batteries out of waste streams.
• Incentivise safe disposal with $9 million for feasibility studies into a permanent national deposit scheme for batteries and battery-containing products with tangible rewards for safe disposal.
• Educate the public with a $1 million national advertising campaign on proper battery disposal and the new collection network.
• Regulate producer responsibility to fully fund safe collection and recycling for all consumer electronics and battery-containing products, including vapes.

Our environment and oceans are choking on plastic waste while corporate producers and retailers escape accountability for the products they unleash. Despite government promises of a circular economy, only 14% of plastic waste is kept out of landfill, and plastic consumption in Australia is set to double by 2050.

The Greens are working to end waste in our lifetime and build a sustainable future by tackling plastic waste at its source and holding corporations accountable for the full lifecycle of their products.

The Greens' plan:

• Eliminate harmful plastics by implementing a national ban on the most damaging single-use plastic items, ensuring consistent regulation across Australia.
• Hold corporations accountable by legislating a mandatory packaging product stewardship scheme to align Australia with international best practices and make polluters responsible for their waste.
• Standardise recycling information by mandating the Australasian Recycling Label (ARL) on all consumer packaging to improve transparency and recycling rates.
• Boost recycling capacity by investing $500 million over five years in infrastructure and innovative technologies, including creating secondary markets for recycled materials.

PFAS chemicals, or "forever chemicals," build up in the environment and our bodies, causing serious health risks.
Australia lags behind other countries in banning these harmful substances, risking becoming a dumping ground for dangerous chemicals.

Urgent national action is needed to protect people, food systems, and the environment.

The Greens' plan:

• Ban all types of PFAS across all uses, including in consumer packaging, agrichemicals, and cosmetic products.
• Adopt a design-first approach by regulating harmful chemicals and contaminants out of packaging to prevent pollution at the source.
• Harmonise national frameworks for managing Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs), including PFAS, in the production of organic compost.
• Develop a timeline for eliminating contaminants from compostable food packaging to support food waste recycling and ease the burden on the waste and resource recovery sector.

Food waste is an environmental and economic crisis, costing Australia $36.6 billion annually. Wasted food is a wasted resource.

When food is wasted, we waste the water, energy and human labour that contributed to producing, processing and retailing the food left on a paddock or diverted to landfill.

Despite national targets to halve food waste sent to landfill by 2030, Australia is falling behind, making action more urgent than ever.

The Greens are working to expand food organic and garden organic (FOGO) services across Australia to cut waste, reduce emissions, and help households and businesses save money.

The Greens' plan:

• Simplify food labels by reforming "best before" and "use by" dates, supported by a $2 million education campaign to reduce consumer confusion and waste.
• Educate households with $10 million over five years for food waste avoidance programs to save money and protect the environment.
• Help businesses cut waste with $5 million in grants for infrastructure and technology to measure and record food waste.
• Expand FOGO services by investing $500 million over five years in collection and processing infrastructure to divert organic waste from landfills.
• Support councils with $250 million over five years to accelerate the rollout of FOGO bins to households nationwide.

Waste incinerators undermine the shift to zero waste and a circular economy, harming communities by locking councils into long-term contracts that encourage waste generation instead of reduction.

They produce hazardous emissions, threaten public health, and are one of the most carbon-intensive methods of dealing with plastics, blocking progress towards a cleaner, more sustainable future.

The Greens' plan:

• Protect communities by banning the construction of new waste incineration facilities.
• Deter harmful waste practices by introducing a $20 per tonne levy on municipal waste sent to operational incinerators.
• Prioritise sustainable solutions by prohibiting the Clean Energy Finance Corporation from funding waste-to-energy projects and removing government subsidies for incineration facilities.