National roadmap launched to guide waste management in ag, fisheries and forestry

Developed by RMCG, the National Waste and Resource Recovery Roadmap is one initiative developed through AgriFutures Australia’s Pre-Farm Gate Waste Program.

Since 2021, the program has worked to align Australia’s agriculture, fisheries and forestry industries with the National Waste Policy, understand producers’ current challenges in managing on-farm waste, identify potential solutions and complement existing initiatives in this space.

Pre-farm gate waste is a significant challenge for Australia’s agriculture, fisheries and forestry sectors. In 2020-21 around 9.8 million tonnes of pre-farm gate waste was produced, including around 100,000 tonnes of plastic waste and 163,000 tonnes of workshop material such as tyres, oil and batteries. While most pre-farm gate waste was organic (around 9.55 million tonnes), this waste is often used beneficially on-farm such as through returning to the soil for improved soil health or reducing soil erosion risk.

RMCG worked closely with the agriculture, fisheries and forestry sectors to coordinate three projects focused on pre-farm gate waste as part of the program, including the development of a national waste roadmap, options analysis and data collection. More than 200 industry representatives were consulted through interviews, workshops and a reference group to better understand the challenges related to on-farm waste and potential solutions.

The published reports ultimately provide clear guidance to industry on ways to reduce their waste footprint on-the-ground and include:

• The National Waste and Resource Recovery Roadmap
• Baseline waste data
• Guidelines for waste data collection
• Options for improved waste management.

The reports provide a clearer picture of the amount of plastic, organic and workshop waste on-farms, its fate and current recycling rates. They have also identified existing options for dealing with waste and improving the recovery of resources.

The roadmap provides an opportunity for primary industries to show their commitment to managing waste. It highlights some of the barriers for producers to ‘move up the waste hierarchy’ and identifies tangible and practical solutions to put in place considering the specific needs of individual sectors, different waste streams and regional variances.

Additional reports are also available which were developed by project partners, the University of Technology Sydney and Murrang Earth Sciences:

• Towards circular material futures: Development of innovative solutions to recycle and re-purpose existing pre-farm gate waste
• Designing optimal solutions for workshop waste.

Next steps

RMCG was recently appointed by AgriFutures Australia to lead the National Farm Waste Coordination Services project which will continue this important work and progress implementation of the National Waste and Resource Recovery Roadmap over the next 12 months.

The project will collaborate closely with the agriculture, fisheries and forestry industries to build ownership and demonstrate their ongoing commitment to waste resource recovery on-farm, coordinate efforts across industry sectors and align with industry sustainability frameworks.

More information

For more information visit the AgriFutures Australia website or contact RMCG Principal Dr Anne-Maree Boland at anne-mareeb@rmcg.com.au. You can also find out more about RMCG’s expertise in resource recovery.