Resource recovery

The Queensland Waste Management and Resource Recovery Strategy sets ambitious targets to increase diversion of waste from landfill and increase recycling and our Queensland Resource Recovery Industries 10-Year Roadmap and Action Plan (1.8 MB) provides a framework to accelerate this transition and develop our state's resource recovery industries.

Our vision is for sustainable resource recovery industries to provide measurable economic and environmental benefits to the economy by 2029.

Resource recovery aims to divert useful waste and end-of-life materials away from landfill so they can be used to create new products. The resource recovery industry includes local governments and businesses involved along the entire supply chain – from designing waste management systems to collection, transfer, sorting and remanufacturing.

The Queensland Government recognises that supporting resource recovery industries helps attract new business and investment to Queensland, bringing economic growth, supply chain benefits and jobs across a range of sectors and regions. Waste is a valuable resource whose value should be kept in the Queensland economy, and we are committed to supporting capital investment that significantly increases Queensland’s recycling rates.

Recent achievements

Australian Recycled Pulp and Paper Project – the Queensland Government and Australian Government announced a joint investment of $40 million with Brisbane-based national company AusWaste Recycling to build a $137 million waste-paper recycling facility at Brendale. This facility will ultimately process 220,000 tonnes of wastepaper and cardboard from across Queensland and northern New South Wales. The project will also support 195 jobs during construction and create 58 ongoing jobs.
Carroll Engineering is establishing a new resource-recovery facility that will process end-of-life tyres into rubber crumb principally used in bitumen for road construction and surfacing in Townsville. The project is supported with a $500,000 jointly funded grant by the Queensland and Australian Government’s through the Regional and Remote Recycling Modernisation Fund and will support 10 ongoing jobs.
Rino Recycling has opened a fully automated plant in Pinkenba that turns construction and demolition waste into recycled material for new infrastructure projects. This project is supported by a $2,350,000 grant towards the styrene plant and weighbridge, which enhances the recycling plant to be able to take, process and export styrene from mixed construction and demolition waste. This has been made available through the Resource Recovery Industry Development Program provided by the Queensland Government.
Sunshine Coast Regional Council opened a new Materials Recovery Facility that will increase processing capacity and recover paper and cardboard, plastics and glass. Construction of the facility was funded through an agreement between all levels of government, with $22 million from the Queensland Government’s Recycling and Jobs Fund, $13.5 million from Council and a $5.1 million joint contribution from Australian and Queensland Governments under the Queensland Recycling Modernisation Fund.

Recycling Enterprise Precincts

As a key action under our Queensland Resource Recovery Industries 10-Year Roadmap and Action Plan ( 1.8 MB) and in response to clear messages from industry, we have developed the Recycling Enterprise Precinct Guideline ( 2.0 MB) and Location Strategy ( 3.3 MB) to increase economic opportunities and help facilitate industrial land growth. By encouraging the co-location of complementary and sometimes hard-to-locate facilities we can:

achieve economies of scale
provide opportunities for access to markets
enhance sustainability outcomes.

Recycling and Jobs Fund – Industry Call

The Recycling and Jobs Fund – Industry Call aims to create significant uplift in industry capability to recover and recycle resources at scale, assist with the development of precincts in strategic locations, and support the Queensland manufacturing sector.

From 31 May 2024, the Queensland Government is making a call to industry for large-scale, high-recovery recycling projects that will make a material impact to Queensland’s waste diversion targets and support the state’s transition to a circular economy.

Through this industry call, large-scale recycling projects that can demonstrate a clear improvement in one or more stages of the recycling process and result in a material impact on the diversion of waste materials from landfill, will be supported with up to $10 million for up to 50% of capital costs. This program will support new, improved and/or expanded infrastructure, technology, machinery and/or capital equipment that will result in high-volume reprocessing or recycling of materials. It targets mixed commercial and industrial (C&I) waste streams; Renewable energy infrastructure; and End-of life electrical and electronic products and batteries.

Previous funding programs

Resource Recovery Industry Development Program (RRIDP) - funded projects and initiatives that divert waste from landfill, reduce stockpiling and create jobs.
Queensland Recycling Modernisation Fund (QRMF) - delivered in partnership with the Australian Government, this program funded projects that improve the sorting, processing, recycling and remanufacturing of waste materials subject to the federal export bans. QRMF replaced and built on the success of RRIDP.
Regional and Remote Recycling Modernisation Fund (RRRMF) – delivered in partnership with the Australian Government, this program funded projects that support local governments and their industry partners to improve the viability of sorting, processing, recycling or remanufacturing of waste subject to the federal export bans in regional and remote Queensland.

Outcomes

Since the launch of the roadmap in August 2019, the department has supported 48 industry development projects that together have the potential to divert 1.36 million tonnes of waste per annum from landfill once operational. These projects will create more than $425 million in capital investment and an estimated 559 ongoing jobs across Queensland.

Read more success stories under the 'Resource recovery' category. More successful projects will be announced soon.

With over $40 million now jointly invested by the Queensland Government and the Australian Government under QRMF and RRRMF, Queensland’s recycling industry is supported to effectively manage the impacts of the waste export bans, as well as continue to deliver against our waste diversion targets.

National waste export ban

In late 2019, the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) agreed that Australia should ban the export of unprocessed waste plastic, paper and cardboard, glass and tyres while building Australia's capacity to generate high value recycled commodities and associated demand.

The National Waste Policy Action Plan 2019 (NWPAP), agreed to by all Australian Governments, created seven targets and actions to guide investment nationally. To support the waste export ban and the other NWPAP targets, the Australian Government is providing $190 million through the Recycling Modernisation Fund, with capital investment jointly provided by the Australian, State and Territory governments.

In May 2021, the Queensland and Australian Governments signed a National Partnership Agreement on Recycling Infrastructure. The agreement commits to $40 million in co-investment to fund a new program to boost Queensland’s recycling industry. It also supports legislation introduced by the Australian Government banning the export of waste glass, plastic, paper and tyres.

As part of this commitment, a National Partnership Agreement has been signed between the Australian Government and Queensland Government. In accordance with the National Partnership Agreement, Queensland will receive over $20 million from the Australian Government, which will be matched with co-funding of over $20 million from the Queensland Government.

Last updated: 20 Nov 2024