ACOR recommends ministerial position for circular economy

The Australian Council of Recycling (ACOR) has called for the creation of a Federal Minister for Resource Recovery and the Circular Economy, with the hope that this position would lead to a government-wide approach towards achieving a circular economy through product stewardship, sustainable procurement, resource recovery, recycling and remanufacturing.

ACOR has released a federal policy platform, ‘Gearing up for a circular economy: actions to unleash a booming Australian recycling sector’, that aims to bring about new jobs, resource efficiency, and innovation and productivity boosts.

“A circular economy is spurred by innovation, technology, employment and manufacturing, whilst delivering significant environmental outcomes. It makes perfect sense to create a new ministerial appointment that can work across all these relevant portfolios,” said ACOR CEO Suzanne Toumbourou.

The policy platform has four underlying key measures to support a circular economy: strong markets for recycled content; the national alignment of policies and circular economy principles; producers being responsible for end-of-life of products on the Australian market; and the guarantee that consumers are aware of how to correctly recycle. Eight recommendations are made within this framework of measures.

“A major priority is harnessing the federal government’s coordinating capacity to improve regulatory alignment for resource recovery, whilst prioritising procurement of recycled materials through targets and incentives.

“With unprecedented government and industry investment and overwhelming public support for resource recovery and recycling, now is the time to unleash the full potential of a circular economy through these policy measures,” Toumbourou said.

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