Environment quality

Waste management

Waste and recycling

Latest news

Environment Ministers agree on National Waste Policy - 5 November 2009
Australia’s environment ministers have agreed to a new National Waste Policy: Less waste, more resources. The historic agreement took place in Perth at the biannual meeting of the Environment Protection and Heritage Council.
National Waste Policy: Less waste, more resources

Fact sheets

In this section

Action to reduce waste, either by encouraging material efficiency, reducing the generation of waste, or enabling the recovery and reuse of discarded material is a critical element of sustainable development. The Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts is developing partnerships and facilitating action with the states and industry to address these issues.

We are initially addressing issues in the following broad sectors: automotive waste (including tyres), oil recycling, the plastics industry, the electrical industry, and all industries within the packaging chain. These industries have been identified as priority areas in which the Australian Government is able to develop a national approach to achieve reduction of environmental impacts.

The Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts is developing programs and responses to these sectors and issues in partnership with industry and other stakeholders. Examples of recent approaches include product stewardship in the oil industry (Product Stewardship (Oil) Act 2000), shared responsibility supported by regulation (National Packaging Covenant), and voluntary agreements for action (plastics).

EPHC news

Environment Protection and Heritage Council
The EPHC is an intergovernmental council of environment ministers.