Vital South Australian material flows: Evidence report (2022)

Green Industries SA has measured recycling activity and waste disposal to assess the state's performance against South Australia’s Waste Strategy each year since 2003–04. As a result they have a detailed understanding of how materials are flowing out of the state’s economy and are able to actively manage practices to improve the recovery and recycling of different material streams.

For Green Industries SA to lead South Australia’s transition towards a more circular economy, a detailed understanding of how materials enter and flow through the economy – and across the life cycle of products – is necessary.

This report quantifies and illustrates the flows of vital materials through the South Australian economy for the first time. As well as examining the whole state economy, the following four sectors are studied in detail:

• Food and organics
• Built environment
• Electronics
• Textiles

This report provides background on material flow analysis and the overall methodology, then delves into the models and results for the whole of SA and each focus sector. The results are presented in Sankey diagrams, which visually depict the flows of materials as they pass through the South Australian economy.