In Australia, waste materials are categorised in three streams: municipal solid waste (MSW), construction and demolition (C&D) and commercial and industrial (C&I). Recycling in Australia is a widespread, and comprehensive part of waste management in Australia, with 60% of all waste collected being recycled. MMSW is collected from households, commercial businesses, industries and construction. Despite its prominence, household recycling makes up only a small part (13%) of Australia's total recycling. It generally occurs through kerbside recycling collections such as the commingled recycling bin and food/garden organics recycling bin, drop-off and take-back programs, and various other schemes. Collection and management of household waste typically falls to local councils, with private contractors collecting commercial, industrial and construction recycling. In addition to local council regulations, legislation and overarching policies are implemented and managed by the state and federal governments.
Australian recycling of soft plastics has notably suffered from the collapse of all capability to recycle at scale. There is as of yet no significant usage of recycled soft plastics in Australia.
History Early recycling efforts (1920–1950) Prior to World War II, open and unregulated landfills as well as incinerators were a popular and viable solution to Australia's waste problem. The only material with enough value to compensate recycling was waste paper. Waste paper collections from households and factories started in Melbourne in the 1920s, with the practice becoming widespread across Australia by the 1940s due to the start of World War II. In addition to the collection and recycling of paper, World War II caused a very high level of demand for resources such as metal, paper, and rubber waste to contribute to the war effort. Despite the rise in recycling, these recycling practises faded after the war with no sustainable market for these resources.
Second wave of recycling (1970–2017) The 1970s saw the return of recycling due to an explosion of public concern about the protection of the environment. Similarly to pre World War II, the only major recycled product was paper- with 30% of consumption collected. During the 1970s also saw the introduction of community recycling centres in Melbourne and Sydney local councils where the community could voluntarily bring glass, metal and paper.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s many local councils began kerbside recycling collections. Kerbside recycling collections allowed Australian households to separate out recyclables such as paper and glass for processing. During this time extensive education campaigns educated Australians about the new practice, which has become commonplace well into the 21st century.
One campaign, ‘Do the Right Thing’ was a highly successful advertising campaign launched by Keep Australia Beautiful which ran during the 1980s to help educate the public about litter and the importance of recycling.
The introduction of container deposit schemes in Australia during the 1980s and 1990s encouraged community groups to collect aluminium cans for recycling in many states and territories. Newspaper publishers also agreed to pay for paper waste to be collected by councils thus helping to fund kerbside collections. Collection rates for both materials rose to about 65% Australia wide with the amount of waste generated by each person reaching ~1 tonne a year.
At the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 Australia was a signatory to Agenda 21. Agenda 21 was designed for countries to "commit to waste minimisation, environmentally sound waste reuse and recycling, and environmentally sound waste treatment and disposal."
In an attempt to encourage recycling, Australian states started imposing higher levies on landfills after 2006. This caused a reduction in landfill waste as the high costs (up to $200 tonne by 2014 in New South Wales) caused a strain on the disposal of waste.
Post Operation National Sword (2018–present) On 1 January 2018, China announced Operation National Sword, an operation that restricted imports on 24 categories of Australian recycling materials, resulting in stockpiling of recyclable materials in Australia with no destination.Shooshtarian S, T Maqsood, PSP Wong, M Khalfan and RJ Yang (27-29 October 2021) 'The impact of new international waste policies on the Australian construction and demolition waste stream'. The 44th AUBEA Conference: Construction Education – Live the Future. Deakin University, Virtual Conference. The President of the Waste Management and Resource Recovery Association of Australia (WMRR), Garth Lamb, had advocated for infrastructure projects to use recovered recycled materials rather than raw materials, such as crushed glass replacing sand in roadworks. The new restrictions placed by China impose a maximum contamination threshold for accepted materials of 0.5%- a rate hard to achieve by the industry in Australia due to the levels of contamination. Prior to Operation National Sword, Australia sent 1.25 million tons of waste to China in 2017.
In an effort to rejuvenate the Australian recycling industry, a range of policies and programs have been established to reduce contamination and recycle more of Australia's waste onshore. In addition to programs established by South Australia in 1977 and the Northern Territory in 2012, container deposit schemes have been widely rolled out or are planning to be introduced in the remaining 6 Australian states and territories by 2023. These programs have reduced contamination as bottles and cans are separated from the waste stream before being contaminated.
A parliamentary inquiry into the waste and recycling industry in Australia filed a report on 13 June 2018.
In 2020, the Victorian Government announced a recycling industry overhaul focusing on increasing recycling and reducing the amount of waste sent to landfills. This overhaul included the introduction of a container deposit scheme to be introduced in November 2023, the introduction of a new household glass bin by 2027, the standardisation of bin lids, and mandating that every household will have a food and garden organics (FOGO) bin by 2030.
Incentives Costs To incentivise recycling, local councils provide heavy discounts or the inclusion of a household recycling bin for free. In contrast, food and garden organic bins require a payment however are discounted. These incentives make recycling a viable option for households due to the small or non-existent cost associated with using the service/s.
Education
Advertising campaigns based on educating the public about how to recycle, cohesive product labelling (the Australasian Recycling Label), and events including Planet Ark's 'National Recycling Week' assists in raising awareness on the issues surrounding recycling and how to correctly recycle.
Household recycling Household recycling in Australia is typically done through a system of kerbside collection bins with different coloured lids to represent different waste streams. The majority of states and territories use a red lid for landfill, yellow lid for recycling, and a green lid for food and garden organics. In some New South Wales councils, a blue lid is used for paper and cardboard recycling, and Victoria is currently rolling out a purple lid bin for glass recycling. In 2018/19, 63% of all waste produced in Australia was recycled or recovered. In 2016–2017, 46% of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) was recycled.
Recycling (yellow lid) Recycling in Australia is managed on a council basis, where each council has their own rules on what can and can't be placed in the recycling bin. Despite this, the following items are commonly placed in the recycling bin:
Aluminium cans, foil, and trays Glass bottles and jars Paper, cartons, and cardboard Plastic bottles, trays, and containers Steel cans and aerosols
Metals Metals collected through kerbside recycling bins include aluminium and steel which can be converted into new products depending on their level of contamination, the quality of the recycling, and the characteristics of the metal.
Aluminium can be repurposed into new consumer metal products (cans, foil, trays) and can also be used in aeroplanes and consumer electronics. Due to the aluminium's unique properties and high sale price, it can be recycled endlessly into new products. Recycling rates in Australia for aluminium packaging sits between 44% and 66% with the majority of processing occurring onshore.
Steel cans are most commonly used in food packaging, as paint containers, and as aerosol cans which can all be recycled through kerbside collection. Recycled cans can be reprocessed into new food packaging, railway tracks, car parts and construction materials. In 2018, the rate of steel recycling was ~56% in Australia.
Glass Glass recycling is common in Australia with a recycling rate of 46%. Recycling of glass occurs mostly onshore through companies like Visy and O–I Asia. The process of recycling glass involves sortation and melting of the products to produce new glass products, sand, or for use in the construction of road projects.
The Victorian Government announced in 2020 that every Victorian household would receive a purple lidded glass recycling bin. The rollout will be completed by 2027 with the aim of reducing contamination in the yellow lid recycling bin and to increase the state's recycling rate.
Paper, cartons and cardboard The quality of paper and cardboard degrades over time as the recycling process continues. This means that traditionally the end product after the recycling process is at a lower quality than the original virgin product. In 2022, the majority of Australia's paper and cardboard is mostly recycled in Australia. Prior to the 2018 Operation National Sword, 55% of Australia's paper and cardboard waste was recycled locally with 28% recycled in China.
Australia also has numerous carton (Tetra Pak) recycling facilities.
Plastic Plastics accepted in most kerbside recycling bins include: type 1 (PET), type 2 (HDPE), and type 5 (PP). +Plastic nameSPI resin ID code Example itemsPolyethylene terephthalate1Water/juice/soda bottles, jars, and bottle capsHigh-density polyethylene2Shampoo and detergent bottlesPolypropylene5Yogurt containers, take away containers, disposable cups and plates, and plant pots Other plastics (type 3, type 4, type 6, and type 7) aren't always recyclable through kerbside collection. Type 6 (polystyrene) can be dropped off at council operated transfer stations for recycling. Type 4 (low-density polyethylene) was able to be recycled through REDcycle drop off points in supermarkets in a program that ended in 2022.
Plastic waste can be reprocessed in a number of ways, with the result of being reconverted into various new products, such as bottles, bins, bags or piping. Prior to the introduction of Operation National Sword in 2018, 71% of Australian exports of scrap paper/paperboard and scrap plastics went to China. After the introduction of Operation National Sword, the figure fell significantly to only 16% of exported mixed plastic scrap being sent to China during the full financial year of 2017–18. This fell even further to 8% of exported mixed plastic scrap going to China in June 2018.
Despite challenges faced in the industry, such as the collapse of the REDcycle program, the plastics recycling industry is beginning to recover in Australia due to government incentives, export restrictions and supermarket cooperative work.
Food and garden organics (green lid)