3 August 2026
The Waste Management and Resource Recovery Association of Australia (WMRR) has welcomed reports that packaging reform will return to the agenda at the next Environment Ministers’ Meeting in September 2026, saying Australia has a once-in-a-generation opportunity to build a genuinely circular packaging system.
However, WMRR is warning governments not to confuse harmonising household recycling collections with fixing Australia’s packaging problem.
“The real issue isn’t what Australians put in the recycling bin. It’s what manufacturers continue to put on supermarket shelves,” said WMRR CEO, Gayle Sloan.
“You cannot collect your way out of poor packaging design.”
“Nationally consistent recycling collections are sensible. But harmonising what we collect is only the final operational step of system readiness. The real challenge is ensuring products are designed to be recovered in the first place.”
WMRR said Australia has spent decades trying to solve a product design problem through better collection systems, while allowing increasingly complex packaging, mixed materials and problematic chemicals to enter the Australian market.
“If packaging isn’t designed to be reused, recycled or safely recovered, no collection system in the world can make it circular.”
Instead, WMRR is urging all governments to focus on nationally consistent rules for the products entering the Australian market through he promised mandatory packaging regulation, including:
- mandatory national packaging design standards;
- elimination of problematic and unnecessary materials and chemicals;
- minimum recycled content requirements;
- clear producer responsibility for the full lifecycle of packaging;
- full producer funding of collection, sorting and recycling; and
- investment in Australian recycling and remanufacturing markets.
Australia does not need to invent its own model, this year, the European Union is implementing its landmark Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) across 27 member countries. The regulation introduces harmonised packaging design requirements, bans PFAS in food-contact packaging above specified limits, mandates minimum recycled content in plastic packaging, strengthens recyclability requirements and places greater responsibility on producers.
“If a continent made up of 27 sovereign nations can agree on common packaging standards, recycled content requirements and restrictions on harmful chemicals, surely one country with eight states and territories can do the same,” Ms Sloan said.
“The conversation shouldn’t start with harmonising what goes in the yellow bin. It should start with harmonising what manufacturers are allowed to put on the shelf.”
WMRR said Australia already has the foundations for reform, with Environment Ministers previously agreeing to strengthen packaging regulation and introduce mandatory obligations.
“What Australia needs now is the courage to finish the job it started when it restricted access to overseas markets for these materials in 2020.”
“Harmonising collections without changing packaging design simply means our essential industry will collect more materials that can’t be economically recycled and destined for landfill.”
“A truly circular economy starts at the design table—not at the kerbside.”
Ms Sloan said packaging reform presents an opportunity to reduce waste, cut emissions, improve material productivity and create new Australian manufacturing jobs by keeping valuable resources circulating in the economy.
“This isn’t just waste policy—it’s industry policy, climate policy and productivity policy.”
“The September Environment Ministers’ Meeting is an opportunity to stop managing waste, and start designing it out of the system.”