Australia's Waste Divide: The States Recycling Well and the States Burying It

New state-by-state data from Intertek Inform has mapped how Australia's businesses and households manage their waste, and the gap between the nation's best and worst performers on public waste recovery stands at 45 percentage points.

• South Australia leads the nation on business waste recovery, diverting 73.7% of commercial waste from landfill, while the Northern Territory recovers just 38.2%.
• The Australian Capital Territory tops public waste recovery at 81.4%, with Western Australia (36.2%) and Queensland (37.2%) the weakest performers.
• Australian businesses generate an average of 8,748 kg of waste per operating business each year, while households produce 506 kg of public waste per person.
• The Northern Territory is the only jurisdiction to rank in the bottom three for both business and public waste recovery.

We analysed the National Waste and Resource Recovery Database (FY 2022-23), published by the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (DCCEEW). The research covers commercial and industrial (C&I) waste, measured per operating business, and municipal solid waste (MSW), measured per person. Across both streams, the findings reveal a familiar pattern: some jurisdictions are recovering the majority of what they generate, while others are burying most of it.

The data covers all eight Australian states and territories, using ABS population and business count data aligned to the same financial year end. Recovery rate is defined as recycling plus energy recovery plus waste reuse, divided by total waste generated, and is the same metric used by the National Waste Policy Action Plan, which targets 80% recovery nationally by 2030.

In this article, we break down how each state and territory compares on commercial and public waste, and what the results mean for Australian businesses.

Australian businesses generate an average of 8,748 kg of waste per operating business per year. Behind that national figure lies a wide spectrum of performance, both in how much waste is generated and how much of it is diverted from landfill.

*Recovery rate = recycling + energy recovery + waste reuse.

Tasmania tops the per-business waste generation table at 15,236 kg, a figure that likely reflects the concentration of resource-intensive industries in the state. Despite this, Tasmania recovers 59% of its commercial waste, sitting above the national average of 59.5%.

South Australia is the standout performer on recovery, diverting 73.7% of business waste from landfill, the highest of any state or territory analysed. At the other end, the Northern Territory recovers just 38.2% of commercial waste while simultaneously generating 14,238 kg per business per year, the second-highest volume nationally.

The gap between South Australia and the Northern Territory on business waste recovery (73.7% compared to 38.2%) suggests the divergence is not simply about how much waste businesses generate, but about the infrastructure, standards maturity, and enforcement consistency in place to manage it.

The average Australian generates 506 kg of public waste per person per year. As with commercial waste, performance on diverting that material from landfill varies considerably across jurisdictions.

*Recovery rate = recycling + energy recovery + waste reuse.

The Australian Capital Territory leads the nation on public waste recovery, diverting 81.4% from landfill. The ACT also records the highest public waste per person at 671 kg, a figure that reflects more complete data capture rather than higher per-resident generation. Comparable material in other states may fall outside formal council collection or be classified differently.

Victoria (63.2%) and South Australia (61.2%) are the next strongest performers, both recovering more than three in every five kilograms of public waste generated. New South Wales (53.7%) sits just above the national average of 51.9%.

At the other end of the table, Western Australia and Queensland each send more than 60% of public waste to disposal, with recovery rates of just 36.2% and 37.2% respectively. The Northern Territory records the lowest per-person waste figure at 381 kg, but sends 60.8% to disposal, placing it among the weakest performers nationally.

Notably, the Northern Territory is the only jurisdiction that ranks in the bottom three for both public and business waste recovery. This pattern could point to a systemic infrastructure challenge rather than a problem confined to a single waste stream.

Data is sourced from the National Waste and Resource Recovery Database (FY 2022-23), published by the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (DCCEEW). Public waste figures use ABS Estimated Resident Population data (end-June 2023) and are expressed as kilograms per person. Commercial and industrial figures use ABS operating business counts for the same period and are expressed as kilograms per operating business. To avoid double-counting, Category-level classifications are used throughout, the approach recommended by DCCEEW where each waste flow appears once. Coal-fired power station ash is separated from C&I in all per-business and recovery-rate calculations, as it originates from a small number of power stations rather than the general business population.

Recovery rate is defined as (recycling + energy recovery + waste reuse) divided by total tonnes, expressed as a percentage. This is the same metric used by the National Waste Policy Action Plan, which targets 80% recovery by 2030. Data was collected in May 2026.