2 September 2026
The voluntary administration of an Adelaide recycler must be an inflection point for Australia’s environment ministers. and one that moves packaging reform to the top of the priority list for the upcoming Environment Ministers’ Meeting this month.
The Adelaide-based recycler employs approximately 60 people and represents another critical piece of Australia’s domestic plastics-processing capacity now at risk.
Waste Management and Resource Recovery Association of Australia (WMRR) CEO Gayle Sloan said Australia’s economic settings continue to penalise recyclers while allowing those that produce and import packaging to avoid responsibility.
“Recyclers invest millions in Australian facilities and jobs, process an ever-growing volume of plastic and compete against cheap virgin and imported recycled materials,” Ms Sloan said.
“Meanwhile, producers can place low-value, poorly designed packaging on the Australian market without funding its recovery or using the recycled materials created. That is not a circular economy. It is an economic regime designed to make Australian recycling fail.”
The Federal Government restricted recyclers’ access to global markets through waste export regulation but introduced no corresponding measures to stop low-value packaging entering Australia or protect local recyclers from cheap imported materials.
“It makes no sense to patrol our borders and employ bureaucrats to stop plastic leaving when the Federal government has no interest in what comes in to Australia, foreign waste is literally clogging our system”, said Ms Sloan, “You cannot remove access to export markets, demand that materials be processed in Australia and then do nothing to create Australian demand for the recovered products.”
“The reality is that the only safe jobs in our industry are the new ones created in Canberra that enforce restrictions on exports, simply adding paperwork and no actual solutions.”
Australia consumed approximately four million tonnes of plastic in 2023–24 but recovered only around 14 per cent.
Despite this failure, WMRR has been advised by Federal Environment Minister Murray Watt that packaging reform will not be delivered during this term of government—meaning meaningful reform may be delayed until at least 2028.
“That is unacceptable,” Ms Sloan said. “Environment ministers agreed packaging reform was necessary in 2022. Consultation closed in 2024. Now Australians are being told to wait until at least 2028 while recyclers, councils, households and the environment continue carrying the cost.
“How many more Australian recyclers must fail and Australian jobs lost before ministers stop talking and start regulating?”
Government inaction is also leaving Australian packaging manufacturers and brand owners behind their international competitors. The European Union’s Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation began applying in August 2026, establishing a harmonised framework covering the entire packaging lifecycle, including design, recyclability, harmful chemicals, reuse and recycled content.
“Global companies are already adapting to clear packaging rules in Europe while Australian businesses are left without standards, certainty or direction,” Ms Sloan said.
“Our packaging manufacturers need certainty to invest and innovate. Instead, government inaction is leaving the entire Australian supply chain behind.
“Australia does not lack evidence or workable international models. It lacks leadership and urgency.”
“Packaging is not free to manage. Its costs already exist—they are simply being pushed onto households, ratepayers, councils and recyclers,” Ms Sloan said. “Extended producer responsibility does not create a new cost. It fairly allocates the existing cost to the businesses making the packaging decisions and earning the profits.
“We need an economic regime that recognises the true cost of packaging, rewards Australian recovery and remanufacturing, and stops penalising the recyclers doing the work.
“Waiting until 2028 is not a plan. It is a failure of leadership—and it is leaving all of Australia behind.”