What does the strategy mean for me?

Leading by example to achieve South Australia’s waste and circular economy targets.

What it means for you

State government agencies are identified in the 2025–2030 strategy as leads or partners across actions spanning waste avoidance, procurement, infrastructure, policy, regulation, education, and data. 

The state government’s role includes implementing policies, regulations and financial incentives that accelerate and support the transition to a circular economy, while encouraging collaboration and behaviour change across sectors.

Government can show leadership by:

• using environmentally sustainable procurement to drive changes in market behaviour
• incorporating circularity into program and service design and delivery, and daily operations
• advocating for national product stewardship schemes for problematic wastes. 

Engaging policy makers, community leaders and businesses helps embed circular thinking and a circularity mindset across the broader community. 

Applying circular economy principles across state strategies, policies and legislation ensures alignment, coherence and measurable impact.

Your opportunity

Integrate circular principles into procurement, project design and service delivery, including reuse, recycled content, durability and sustainable materials.

• Promote cross-agency collaboration, data sharing and transparency in reporting progress.
• Support workplace and staff initiatives that reduce waste, embed circular practices and showcase innovation.
• Support business to become more sustainability and adopt circular business models.
• Support investment in circular businesses and high performing resource recovery systems and infrastructure.
• Advocate for and implement product stewardship schemes, pilot new circular solutions, and provide support and guidance to local government, businesses and community groups.

The bottom line

Model better-practice across government and prove South Australia’s leadership through action and results.

Supporting councils to deliver improved services and stronger community engagement, recognising their crucial role in a circular economy transition.

What it means for you

Councils are pivotal to achieving the 2025–2030 strategy’s goals and targets. The strategy highlights council’s role in:

• delivering high-performing waste collection services, such as the 3-bin kerbside system, and educating communities in how to correctly use these systems 
• supporting community-led initiatives such as repair hubs and swap centres
• promoting adaptive reuse of building stock in council projects
• aligning local or regional waste and resource recovery plans with circular economy principles, setting diversion targets, and embedding sustainable procurement practices (for example, uniforms designed for durability, repair, reuse and recyclability)
• adopting AS 4123.5-2008 (Mobile waste containers, Part 5: Performance requirements and test methods) for all new and replacement kerbside mobile waste containers
• partnering with state government to expand household hazardous waste disposal options
• contributing to standardised kerbside waste collection bin audit methodologies and sharing data to support continuous improvement.

Metropolitan councils

Metropolitan councils can:

• implement the SA Better Practice Guide: Sustainable Kerbside Services and apply best-practice 3-bin systems to medium and high-density dwellings, where service parameters allow
• support the reduction of contamination rates in kerbside organics and recycling bins by:
  • monitoring contamination 
  • supporting local communities to correctly use kerbside recycling and organics bins 
  • providing targeted assistance at the household level, where required.  

Regional councils

Regional councils can:

• investigate the development of regional circular economy, resource recovery and processing infrastructure, including incentivising the local processing and reuse of wastes, especially of organics
• work with GISA on the development of a regional SA Better Practice Guide: Sustainable Kerbside Services for implementation in large regional centres and townships where 3-bin kerbside systems are provided and current or planned local processing capacity exists, and other suitable areas with consideration of local circumstances 
• contribute to the development of regional circular economy roadmaps and place-based solutions that achieve circular outcomes in regional areas. This could include capacity building, skills development, opportunities for reverse logistics, circular economy precincts, or end-market development. 

Your opportunity

• Align your plans and strategies with circular economy principles and set measurable diversion targets.
• Strengthen community engagement through education, co-branded campaigns, repair, reuse and drop-off initiatives.
• Expand or optimise kerbside bin systems to reduce contamination rates, and track performance to guide targeted support.
• Collaborate with state government and local partners to build local processing capacity, circular precincts, reverse logistics solutions, and robust end markets.
• Consider applying for funding through Green Industries SA grants and programs.
• Embed circular procurement practices across operations to improve environmental outcomes and demonstrate leadership.

The bottom line

Deliver high-performing kerbside collection services, embed circularity across procurement policies and practices, and support community-led initiatives.

Helping South Australian businesses innovate and grow through smarter resource use.

What it means for you

The 2025–2030 strategy supports businesses to cut costs, meet customer expectations and unlock new market opportunities through adopting circular practices. 

By designing for circularity and longevity, businesses can make their products easier to repair, upgrade, disassemble and recycle, ensuring they last longer and have less environmental impact.

Businesses play a critical role in reducing waste generation through redesigning or reducing packaging, adopting reusable or recyclable solutions, and participating in collaborative circular initiatives. Collaboration – through aligned industrial activities, shared resource use, circular ecosystems and closed-loop partnerships – strengthens value chains and creates new markets. 

The strategy encourages businesses to increase resource efficiency, reduce waste and adopt lean manufacturing approaches that improve material productivity. 

It also encourages and supports businesses to separate their waste at the source, reduce contamination of recyclable materials, and to procure collection services for segregated recyclable materials, enabling recyclable material to continue circulating in the economy and reducing waste being disposed to landfill.

The strategy promotes ESG-aligned procurement, prioritising products with recycled content and domestic recycled materials. It also signals a shift toward circular business models, guided by frameworks such as ISO 59010:2024. (Circular economy — Guidance on the transition of business models and value networks).

The strategy also supports building circular knowledge and mindsets across industry and will ensure that the South Australian workforce has the skills needed for today’s jobs as well as those of tomorrow.

Your opportunity

• Track the material flows of your business to understand where waste is created and where efficiency gains can be made. 
• Redesign processes and products using circular principles, adopt resource-efficient manufacturing, and ensure packaging is reduced or manufactured for reuse and recyclability. 
• Increase the amount and quality of materials that are recovered by separating your waste from recyclable materials, and reduce contamination by putting waste in the correct bins. 
• Adopt circular procurement practices by prioritising recycled content and sustainably sourced materials in your purchasing decisions.
• Collaborate with other businesses to share resources, exchange by-products, or build circular precincts and supply-chain partnerships – especially in regional areas where place-based solutions, reverse logistics, and end markets can be further developed. 
• Adopt recognised standards like ISO 59010:2024 (Circular economy — Guidance on the transition of business models and value networks) to support the transition of your business models and value networks. 
• Access GISA and other state government funding programs that support trials, technology upgrades and end-market development for high-circularity materials.

The bottom line

Design out waste, reuse resources and lead by example – your competitiveness depends on it.

Reducing food waste and creating value across the supply chain.

What it means for you

Food businesses have a unique opportunity to reduce waste at every stage of sourcing, preparation and service. 

When disposed in landfills, food waste produces methane, a potent greenhouse gas. Food waste sent to landfill is responsible for 3% of Australia’s emissions annually.

The 2025–2030 strategy encourages actions that minimise edible food loss, support the redistribution of surplus edible food, increase the recovery of food waste, and decrease greenhouse gas emissions.

This includes redesigning processes to prevent waste and valorising food waste by turning unavoidable scraps into valuable products. 

For unavoidable food waste, the strategy supports and encourages businesses to segregate this waste for separate organics collections, enabling the food waste to be reprocessed and returned to agricultural land as high-quality soil improvers. 

Donating unsold edible food to food rescue charities helps to nourish communities while reducing disposal costs and greenhouse gas emissions from food being discarded to landfill.

Your opportunity

• Review how food moves through your business – from paddock to plate – and identify where waste can be avoided, repurposed or recovered. 
• Review your businesses waste management contract and implement better systems to separate food waste.
• Partner with food rescue charities and other businesses and explore opportunities to valorise by-products into new products or services.
• Consider redesigning menus, improving storage practices, or training staff to reduce spoilage.
• Where possible, collaborate across the supply chain to create new circular solutions, build stronger end markets for recovered organics and support local circular initiatives.

The bottom line

Cut food waste, support redistribution and turn unavoidable leftovers into value, strengthening both your business and your community.

Creating the systems and markets that keep materials in use and out of landfill.

What it means for you

The 2025–2030 strategy signals stable, long-term demand for recovery and reprocessing of high-quality recovered materials. 

It emphasises the sector’s important role in processing safe end-of-life materials into high-value feedstock for recycled content products. 

This includes investing in advanced sorting and recycling technologies that maximise material recovery, reduce contamination and produce quality feedstock for manufacturers.

Operators provide safe and appropriate waste management pathways, including source-separating collection systems for businesses and industry, and ensure high-performing infrastructure supports circular material flows. 

To help improve the quality and quantity of recovered resources, the strategy encourages the adoption of standards such as AS 4123.5-2008 (Mobile waste containers, Part 5: Performance requirements and test methods) for new commercial and industrial mobile waste containers. It also highlights the importance of partnering with state government on solutions for hazardous waste, including safe destruction pathways for damaged lithium-ion batteries and expanded disposal options for households.

Your opportunity

• Access GISA and other state government funding programs that support investment in advanced sorting, reprocessing and recycling technologies that enhance throughput and produce high-quality secondary materials. 
• Provide source-separating collection services for businesses and industry, and provide transparent data to customers to help inform decision-making.
• Engage with state government on hazardous waste solutions and co-investment opportunities in infrastructure that enables high-value recovery.
• Collaborate with manufacturers to secure long-term offtake agreements and build resilient domestic end-markets. 
• Participate in trials and pilots that test new recovery systems, remanufacturing solutions and circular material flows. 

The bottom line

Provide safe and appropriate waste management and disposal pathways that help to process end-of-life materials into new products.

Turning South Australia’s organic waste into a valuable resource.

What it means for you

Recycling organic waste into high quality compost returns nutrients to soils and regenerates nature. It also prevents the organic waste from being disposed to landfill which creates greenhouse gas emissions. 

The 2025–2030 strategy highlights the critical role of organics recyclers in processing segregated food waste from municipal and commercial waste streams, and transforming these recovered materials into high-value, high-circularity soil improvement products.

The strategy aims to reduce nutrient loss across the food system by ensuring nutrients captured through segregated food waste collection systems are recycled back into agricultural production. Through better source segregation and reduced contamination of organic feedstock, both product quality and environmental outcomes are improved.

High-quality compost and soil conditioners help restore soil health, improve crop yields and increase resilience across farming, landscaping and nature rehabilitation activities. 

Your opportunity

• Access GISA and other state government funding programs that support investment in advanced resource recovery infrastructure, processes and technologies that divert food waste into productive use.
• Help shape legislative reform for mandatory source separation and collection of unpackaged organics from large food-waste-generating businesses.
• Participate in the development of a consistent input material list for commercial organics collections.
• Contribute to market development by turning organic waste into high-quality compost and soil products, and supporting efforts to reduce contamination in feedstock.

The bottom line

By focusing on reducing contamination of recovered organic feedstock, the strategy supports the achievement of cleaner, high-value circular outcomes.

Building circular economy knowledge and skills for South Australia’s current and future workforce.

What it means for you

Providing circular economy education opportunities will help develop the mindset and skills needed for circular design, repair, reuse and systems thinking. 

The 2025–2030 strategy encourages expanding circular economy education, training and workforce development across all levels – from linking circular principles to secondary curricula, to embedding them in TAFE and university courses. 

This includes developing repair skills, supporting vocational training centres focused on circular economy practices, and preparing learners for emerging circular jobs, circular businesses and a circular built environment. 

Universities are encouraged to offer ‘common core’ courses that build circular literacy across disciplines, and to integrate circularity and embodied carbon considerations into built environment and industry training programs.

By increasing knowledge and fostering circular mindsets early, the education sector prepares a skilled workforce ready to meet current and future needs.

Your opportunity

• Embed circular principles into teaching programs and partner with GISA for classroom resources, challenges and site visits. 
• Expand skills development by incorporating repair training, design-for-circularity projects and interdisciplinary modules that reflect real circular economy challenges. 
• Integrate circular economy concepts into vocational and tertiary courses, and collaborate with industry to ensure graduates gain the practical and technical capabilities emerging in the circular economy. 
• Use hands-on activities – such as waste audits, repair projects, product redesign or partnerships with local reuse initiatives – to make learning tangible. 
• Share student work and project outcomes as case studies to inspire others.

The bottom line

Embed circular thinking in every lesson to shape South Australia’s future workforce.

Providing the evidence and innovation that turns circular ambition into tangible action.

What it means for you

The 2025–2030 strategy calls for stronger collaboration between researchers, government and industry to develop solutions to circular economy challenges and evaluate impact. 

Research institutions play a critical role in undertaking and publishing innovative work that drives the circular economy forward, partnering with businesses, industry and entrepreneurs to develop technologies, circular business models and circular design and production solutions. 

This includes evaluating policies, programs and initiatives that contribute to the circular transition, as well as advancing research into circular solutions for problematic and emerging wastes – from product design and alternatives to end-of-life pathways. 

Robust methods and open insights underpin good policy, efficient markets and targeted investment.

Your opportunity

• Partner with businesses, industry and entrepreneurs to develop innovative solutions that support circular economy outcomes. 
• Research innovative solutions to problematic and emerging wastes including design, alternatives, and end-of-life. 

The bottom line

Undertake and publish innovative research to drive the circular economy forward.

Designing, constructing and operating buildings that conserve resources, reduce emissions and stay in use longer.

What it means for you

The built environment is responsible for nearly 40% of the world’s raw material use and 38% of global energy-related emissions. 

The 2025–2030 strategy recognises that transformation in the built environment is critical to the transition to a circular economy as the design and construction choices made today will determine the environmental and social impacts of the sector for decades to come. 

Circular principles encourage designing for longevity, adaptability, modularity and disassembly, while prioritising recycled content, low-emissions materials and regenerative approaches. 

Refurbishment and adaptive reuse of existing buildings help reduce demand for raw materials, minimise demolition, and extend asset life.

The strategy also highlights the need for skilled professionals across design, engineering, planning, architecture and construction to embed circular economy thinking at every stage. 

Circular procurement, product stewardship and collaboration with suppliers are key levers to ensure materials and components remain in productive use throughout their lifecycle.

Your opportunity

• Plan and design buildings and infrastructure for adaptability, modularity, longevity and disassembly, reducing future material use and enabling reuse.
• Explore innovative approaches such as off-site prefabrication, modular construction and waste heat reuse to reduce material consumption and emissions.
• Use low-emission, locally sourced, repairable and recyclable materials, including recycled content, green steel, low-carbon concrete, and products with stewardship schemes.
• Prioritise refurbishment and adaptive reuse over demolition to minimise environmental impacts and maximise the life of assets.
• Segregate waste materials on building sites to increase diversion of uncontaminated materials from landfill.
• Implement actions outlined in the Circular economy in SA’s built environment – Action Plan 2023 to guide design, construction and operational decisions.
• Implement circular procurement practices, embedding durability, repairability and recycled content into contracts and project delivery.
• Track and report material use, waste and recovery outcomes to improve transparency and support continuous improvement.
• Develop workforce skills and knowledge through tertiary education and professional training programs to drive circular practices across the sector.

The bottom line

Design and construct buildings and infrastructure with circularity at the core – conserving resources, reducing emissions and creating resilient, long-lasting buildings and infrastructure for South Australians.

Recovering value, reducing waste, and supporting the clean energy transition.

What it means for you

The clean energy transition is driving rapid growth in demand for critical and strategic minerals, including lithium, nickel, cobalt, manganese, graphite, copper, aluminium and rare earth elements. 

South Australia holds significant reserves, including 69% of Australia’s copper, 65% of its graphite, the world’s largest zircon mine, and deposits of cobalt, rare earth elements, halloysite and magnesium. 

The circular economy plays a role in reducing the environmental impact of the critical minerals sector, including through recycling and reprocessing materials. 

Circular economy strategies, including reducing consumption, increasing product lifespan, and recovering materials and minerals from end-of-life products, can help manage this and reduce demand for new mineral extraction by up to 58%.

Your opportunity

Improve materials productivity through circular economy initiatives including the recovery of valuable minerals, such as critical minerals and rare earth minerals, from mine tailings and other mining waste, and repurposing of waste rock. 

The bottom line

Recover and repurpose mining waste to increase material productivity, reduce environmental impact, and support the clean energy transition while strengthening South Australia’s circular economy.

Inspiring local action and participation in South Australia’s circular future.

What it means for you

Community groups connect the 2025–2030 strategy to everyday life – through education, repair, swap, composting and collection initiatives.

Your role includes creating and supporting community-led initiatives such as repair hubs, swap centres, sharing groups, clean-up campaigns and community gardens with composting. 

These activities help normalise circular behaviours, reduce waste, influence consumption habits and broaden community access to practical solutions. 

Community groups also play a key role in advocating for a more sustainable and circular economy and driving behaviour change.

Your opportunity

• Apply for funding or partner with councils to run workshops, repair cafés, swap events, neighbourhood drop-offs or local behaviour-change campaigns.
• Localise circular economy and sustainability messaging for your community and share stories that show real benefits.
• Implement community education activities that promote waste avoidance and shift consumption habits to be more sustainable. 

The bottom line

Lead local action that makes the circular economy visible, practical and inclusive.

Empowering South Australians to make simple changes that make a difference to South Australia’s future.

What it means for you

The 2025–2030 strategy is about making it easier to do the right thing when it comes to waste, such as:

• recycling correctly by putting food and garden waste in the green bin and recyclables in the yellow bin.
• using available drop-off options for hazardous and problematic items like batteries and e-waste
• minimising food waste by using what you have and storing food correctly to extend shelf life
• making sustainable consumption choices to minimise your waste output.

These actions can help you save money, reduce clutter and protect the environment.

Your opportunity

Make sustainable consumption choices – choose durable and recyclable products, buy recycled-content items, and reduce your waste by reusing, repairing, sharing and borrowing. Participate in circular initiatives such as repair cafés, tool and item libraries, and second-hand marketplaces, and donate responsibly.

The bottom line

You can help to make South Australia more sustainable through improved consumption decisions and recycling habits. Your everyday actions help to cut emissions and support local jobs in recycling and the circular economy.