Australia’s waste management practices are embarrassing compared to Europe

The experience was a stark reminder that Australia is, frankly, decades behind Europe when it comes to waste management. Over there, governments, manufacturers, communities and leading waste managers such as REMONDIS (which is headquartered in Germany) have a knack of making tremendous strides when it comes to waste re-use and recycling in ways that are good for the environment, communities, industry and economies.

We are a country with natural wonders ranging from rainforests and deserts to snow and the Great Barrier Reef. With all that at risk, how can Germany leave us in the dust on just about every waste management front? Why are their environmental outcomes part of the national psyche and pursued with vigour, but not ours? I suspect Australia takes its gift of expansive land for granted. So much space might be inadvertently holding us to landfill solutions. If that’s the case, we’re selling out, and it’s inexcusable. 

Landfill is crude and ugly, the worst form of waste management. If landfill is essentially a default option, you not only lose recyclable and recoverable materials (and energy generation options if Energy from Waste solutions are in the frame), but you create land disturbance and methane and leachate issues – setting all the greenhouse gas bells ringing. The looks on people’s faces in Germany when I explained the extent to which landfill is still happening here in Australia was more than enough to signal that we’re getting it very wrong. And Australia is still baulking at Energy from Waste technology that’s used in major cities all over the world? Surely not.   

Germany’s successes come down to its legislative approaches. Landfill in Germany is more-or-less illegal and has been for decades. Want to stop landfill? Legislate against it.

Further, manufacturers are legally required to pay the costs of recycling the packaging materials they create, meaning the onus of circular economic responsibility can’t disappear like a plastic bag in the wind. Glass must be re-used or recycled. Non-recyclable waste is all but eliminated through safe combustion, and the heat used to generate a cleaner form of power. The thought of waste going into the ground is heresy.

In Australia, the approach has largely been to disincentivise landfill through levies that make landfill more expensive and recycling more attractive.

While this might get to the right outcome in the long run, it’s a painfully slow process, meaning the same-old approach of tipping waste into holes in the ground continues. Granted, recycling is generally more expensive, given that it’s much more labour and equipment intensive. A Federal Government report from the Department of Agriculture, Water and Environment in October 2021 shows that for every ten thousand tonnes of waste recycled, 9.2 jobs are created, whereas only 2.8 jobs are required to landfill the same quantity. But when you’re a manufacturer, consumer or waste manager and the door for cheaper landfill options remains wide open, chances are you’ll keep going in that door.