Friday, 13 June 2025

IT'S TIME TO LET URGENCY REPLACE COMPLACENCY - WHY THE UPCOMING SOLAR SUBSIDIES SHOULD BE THE PROMPT AUSTRALIA NEEDS TO ENFORCE MANDATORY PRODUCT STEWARDSHIP

With the federal government’s rollout of solar subsidies on 1 July 2025 expected to double the amount of decommissioned panels each year to 8 million, growing concerns around the unsafe disposal and storage of batteries, and increasing attention on the problems associated with the management of discarded plastics, Gayle Sloan, CEO of the Waste Management and Resource Recovery Association of Australia (WMRR), is calling on the Australian Government to deliver on long-standing promises and implement mandatory product stewardship for problematic products.

"Nearly three (3) years after this Australian Government prioritised a regulated product stewardship scheme for solar panels and electronics, and two (2) years after Ministers pledged mandatory packaging design standards, there is still no regulatory scheme in place or even close for either—no rules, no enforcement, and no producer responsibility," said Ms Sloan.

"With solar subsidies set to boost the volume of valuable materials like silver in circulation, Australia must seize the opportunity to act now and regulate a mandatory product stewardship scheme for solar panels—prioritising urban mining over virgin extraction. Now is the time to shift from disposal to circularity, and holding those responsible for producing, for managing through the lifecycle." 

Mandatory Product Stewardship requires producers to take responsibility for the entire lifecycle of their products including end-of-life management. This encourages sustainable design to optimise reuse, recovery and recycling, ultimately benefiting the environment and climate.  Recovered materials can be used to create new products or returned to the supply chain for other industrial processes.  

“Australia is extracting more finite minerals and more fossil fuels than we need to. Our systems need to shift to retain value and recover materials, not continue to extract more,” Ms Sloan said. “It is unacceptable that there is still no regulation to require sustainable product design including reuse of recycled materials, and no obligations – financial or regulatory – on producers to mitigate and manage product impacts through their lifecycle.”

Both the December 2024 Final Report to the Circular Economy Ministerial Advisory Group (CEMAG), The Circular Advantage, and the April 2025 final report of the Senate inquiry into waste reduction and recycling polices, No Time to Waste, call for federal legislative frameworks that enable mandatory product stewardship schemes.

Australia remains one of the only OECD countries without a comprehensive framework that holds manufacturers and importers accountable for the full lifecycle of the products they place on the market. From design through to end-of-life, product makers continue to avoid responsibility – leaving local councils, communities, and the environment to bear the cost.

In the absence of national action to date, states are increasingly taking matters into their own hands to tackle problematic products like batteries, whilst the Australian Packaging Covenant Organisation (APCO) has continued to operate as an ineffective voluntary stewardship scheme that has failed to meet all 2025 targets and has recently halted plans to implement extended product responsibility (EPR) fees in 2027.  

“Australia cannot afford to let another year pass without action, creating cost and confusion for both the consumer and industry,” said Ms Sloan. 

"With upcoming solar and home battery subsidies set to increase problematic waste, swift action is needed—starting with mandatory, regulated product stewardship."

The time for action is now.