EPA challenging industry to divert more than 1 million tonnes of waste yearly

Commissioned by the NSW Environment Protection Authority (EPA), the 2023 Commercial and Industrial Waste audit assessed more than 1,500 loads of waste and 3,500 individual garbage bags from 14 disposal facilities.

It’s provided vital insights into the waste being sent to landfill by schools, restaurants, offices, businesses, and major industries across the state.

NSW Environment Protection Authority (EPA) Executive Director Programs and Innovation, Alexandra Geddes said it’s the most comprehensive audit ever undertaken in NSW and is a game-changer for fast-tracking the circular economy.

"Right now, NSW recovers 51% of commercial and industrial waste, but we’ve set an ambitious goal of an average 80% recovery rate across all waste materials by 2030,” Ms Geddes said.

“The findings from this audit will help inform development of NSW policy and future programs, by showing us exactly where we should be focusing our attention to close that gap.

“Specifically, increasing our state’s capacity to recycle material is critical with landfill space in Greater Sydney set to be exhausted by 2030.

“We want to prevent the need for more landfill sites. Our recent Circular Economy Summit highlighted the need for bold action and innovative ideas to tackle the issue which is a shared responsibility.

“We’re calling on businesses to build on their existing recycling, to think about ways to reduce how much waste is being generated, and to have appropriate recycling systems in place.

“While we’ve got some challenges ahead, we’re focussed on the opportunities, which could see us start to divert more than 1 million tonnes of waste from landfill every year.”

The audit found:

• Almost 35%– over 1 million tonnes – of waste being sent to landfill each year by businesses and institutions is made up of materials that can be recycled. This includes certain plastics, cardboard, ferrous metals, garden organics, and food.
• 53% of the waste consisted of materials that could be recycled if improvements were made to the availability of collection services, source separation, recycling processing infrastructure, and markets for recovered materials. These materials include packaged food, plastics, and treated wood.
• Garbage bags were the main component of waste being sent to landfill making up almost 45% of all waste.
• Waste generated by small-to-medium enterprises rose sharply, from 30.7% in 2014 to 57.7% in 2023.

The EPA is responding to the challenge with a range of measures:

• By introducing legislation on 21 November 2024 to mandate the collection of Food Organics and Garden Organics (FOGO) from households and Food Organics (FO) to divert food waste from landfill from certain businesses and institutions.
• We’re reviewing the waste levy to ensure we’re incentivising recycling.
• We’re prioritising phasing out more single-use plastic items and promoting reuse such as those proposed in the NSW Plastics: The Way Forward action paper.
• We’re taking action to prevent contamination in recycling streams including product stewardship of batteries, including designing packaging to be recyclable and designing out chemical additives in packaging.
• The audit provides valuable baseline data that will inform the development of the NSW Waste Infrastructure Plan and will be published online so industry can use this data to inform decisions around waste services.
• We’re supporting NSW businesses to avoid and reduce waste, and increase recycling through the Bin Trim Network program and rebates. Our $4 million Business Food Waste Partnership Grants program supports industry peak bodies, councils, hospitality sectors, and institutions to deliver food waste source separation education and empower NSW businesses to increase food waste avoidance.
• Our $2.37 million Food Rescue Grants and Rebates offer financial support to expand food rescue and relief capacity to safely manage increasing amounts of rescued food in NSW.

Full results are published on our website including an interactive data dashboard, available at www.epa.nsw.gov.au/commercial-and-industrial-waste-audit-2023