The Waste Management and Resource Recovery Association of Australia (WMRR) welcomes the passing of the Product Lifecycle Responsibility Bill 2025 by the NSW Parliament today and calls on all other states and territories to implement this framework immediately.
“Our industry, which plays a critical role in managing essential waste, has been facing a national crisis with the ongoing escalation of battery-related fires in our trucks and facilities,” said Gayle Sloan, CEO of WMRR, the national peak industry body. “The reality is that we are not the manufacturers of these products, but we are the ones dealing with the fallout—both literally and financially.”
With the new Act in NSW, this can change. The Act establishes a legislative framework for mandatory product stewardship schemes, initially focusing on batteries.
“Finally, in NSW, the Government will have the necessary regulatory tools to oversee stewardship organisations and enforce requirements across a product’s entire lifecycle—from design and production through to recovery and disposal,” said Ms. Sloan. “For too long, we have relied on the goodwill of producers to ensure their products are safe and properly managed. Now, we have the ability to regulate, which is vital for the protection of the community.”
The industry wants to loudly thank the NSW Environment Minister, the Honourable Penny Sharpe MLC, for listening to our essential industry and pushing forward with this scheme to help make our workers and community safe, rather than adopting the view that this should not be done in this way.
“With more than 12,000 fires annually in the waste and resource recovery industry, the time to say that keeping us safe is another level of government’s responsibility to fix is well and truly over. NSW has shown the way!”
WMRR urgently calls on all Environment Ministers across the nation to act quickly to reduce the risks of battery fires and progress aligned state-led reforms for mandatory battery product stewardship, now that NSW has passed this vital piece of legislation.
Currently, Australia only has a voluntary national stewardship scheme, B-cycle, which covers a limited range of batteries. Due to its voluntary nature, it faces real challenges with both free riders and increasing recovery rates beyond 15%. WMRR is also calling on B-cycle to join the mandatory scheme before any further changes are made.