Australia Releases Circular Economy Inquiry Report, Presenting Future Recommendations for Electronics, Textiles, and Other Sectors

On January 16, 2026, the Australian Productivity Commission released an inquiry report on the nation’s circular economy and tabled it in Parliament on January 23. According to the report, Australia’s circular economy has stagnated over the past decade, leaving challenges such as high costs, inconsistent regulations, and a lack of information. The Commission is urging the Australian Government to streamline regulations, strengthen corporate responsibility through product stewardship schemes, and promote innovation to improve Australia’s resource productivity. In particular, it states that resource productivity must be improved as a priority in five sectors: building, food, agriculture and organics, mining, electronics, and textiles and clothing.

The following is an overview of the inquiry report.

Current State of the Circular Economy

Although Australia’s raw material productivity, circularity rate, and waste recovery rate have risen slightly over the past decade, the rate of increase is slow. Furthermore, circular economy-related policies in Australia are still in the early stages of development. While the government has previously focused its resource productivity policies primarily on the recycling stage, in recent years, focus has been shifting toward the earlier stages of the product life cycle.

Recommendations for the Government

To improve resource productivity in a way that benefits both the economy and the environment, the government should promote efforts in the following three areas:

• Streamlining and harmonizing regulations to make it easier for businesses to adopt innovative technologies and practices while protecting the environment and human health.
• Strengthening responsibility through product stewardship for companies that supply products with high-risk or high-value waste, such as small electronics and small-scale solar photovoltaic (PV) systems.
• Promoting circular initiatives and innovation through programs and services that facilitate coordination, collaboration, and capacity building.

Additionally, five priority sectors were identified based on the environmental and economic importance of resources and their applicability in Australia: building, food, agriculture and organics, mining, electronics, and textiles and clothing. The following is an overview of the electronics and textiles and clothing sectors.

Electronics

In Australia, the recovery rate for electronic waste (e-waste) remains at only half, with 80 percent of that being sent to low-efficiency recycling processes. This represents a significant opportunity to recover valuable resources, reduce reliance on virgin resources, and mitigate risks associated with e-waste disposal, such as fires caused by improper disposal of lithium-ion batteries.
Accordingly, the report makes the following recommendations to the Australian Government:

• The Australian Government should create national product stewardship for small electronics, solar photovoltaic (PV) systems, and electric vehicle (EV) batteries.
• The government should work with state and territory governments to ensure a consistent approach across regions. Differing product stewardship frameworks among states and territories risk increasing costs for industry and causing regulatory fragmentation.
• To enhance the effectiveness of product stewardship schemes for electronics, complementary measures such as product labeling, reuse and repair targets, broader Right to Repair policies, and consumer education campaigns should also be implemented.

Textiles and Clothing

The volume of textile consumption and waste in Australia is among the highest in the world. Australian households and businesses consume an average of 39 kg of textile products per person annually, which is 2.5 times the global average. Furthermore, approximately 33 kg per person is discarded annually, indicating significant room for improving resource productivity and reducing waste. In Australia, some textile-related companies support initiatives to increase circularity in the textile sector through voluntary industry-led product stewardship schemes. However, low participation rates and a lack of funding are challenges, and the effectiveness has not been fully realized.
Given this situation, the report proposes the following:

• The Australian Government should introduce measures such as strengthened monitoring and improved transparency to increase the accountability of textile-related companies for waste reduction and resource productivity improvement.
• The government should collaborate with the industry to improve public information for tracking progress toward performance targets.

Related Link

The inquiry report (Australia’s circular economy: unlocking the opportunities) can be downloaded from the URL below:
https://www.pc.gov.au/inquiries-and-research/circular-economy/report/