Cross-cutting enablers
Key actions
- Undertake a review of the Green Industries SA Act 2004.
- Promote the application of circular economy principles across state government policies, strategies and legislation.
- Support the integration of circular economy principles and practices into the design and delivery of state government programs and services where relevant.
Energy from waste
Energy from waste (EfW) refers to the recovery of energy from waste materials, with EfW technologies including mass burn incineration, gasification, pyrolysis, anaerobic digestion, biogas and refuse-derived fuel.
Interest in the use of EfW technologies in Australia, including SA, to tackle the amount of residual waste going to landfill, is growing. However, consigning residual waste to an EfW process is not regarded as a circular pathway for waste materials in the same way that disposal to landfill is not circular. Neither pathway is ideal.
While EfW can be preferable to landfill, especially when it displaces fossil fuels, it must not undermine recycling or circular economy targets. South Australia’s approach prioritises higher value circularity outcomes such as waste avoidance, reuse and recycling.
While EfW will not alleviate SA’s consumption of virgin materials, and would not transit the state significantly closer to a circular economy, this strategy recognises a role for EfW facilities in SA where they:
- meet best-practice environment protection requirements
- reduce waste to landfill
- do not undermine circular economy principles
- support higher value circularity outcomes such as waste avoidance, reuse and recycling
- demonstrate social licence with communities.
Key action
- Consider regulatory measures to reinforce that energy from waste activities occur in accordance with the waste management hierarchy and circular economy principles where materials are kept in use at their highest value for as long as possible.
Illegal dumping and litter
In a circular economy, litter and illegal dumping represent leakage and cause environmental pollution.
Illegal dumping undermines lawful operators, wastes resources, and incurs clean-up costs, while litter – commonly plastics, cigarette butts, paper and cardboard – pollutes land and waterways.
Key actions
- Consider legislative reform regarding unlawful disposal of waste, that further disincentivises illegal dumping, prevents the loss of valuable materials from the economy, and ensures a level playing field for licenced waste industry operators.
- Provide community education to support the reduction of litter.
- Consider measures to address additional problematic plastic waste streams that cause marine or land litter or pollution.
Disaster waste management
Extreme weather events, worsened by climate change, are increasingly affecting South Australia, particularly in regional and remote areas.
Bushfires and floods generate large volumes of debris that can overwhelm waste management systems, impacting human health, the environment, and long-term community recovery.
Under the State Emergency Management Plan, GISA leads disaster waste management, coordinating preparedness, response, and recovery activities across government, councils, waste operators, and communities.
Planning and coordinated action ensures efficient clean-up, reduces environmental harm, and improves recycling outcomes from disaster-generated waste, supporting safer, more resilient communities while maintaining resource recovery and circular economy objectives.
Key actions
- Encourage planning including at the zone level, for response to disaster and other disruptive events to strengthen community resilience and ensure continuity of waste management services and/or adapting to changes in waste management requirements.
- Ensure planning and investment in waste and resource recovery infrastructure to provide adequate waste management resilience and continuity in response to disaster and other significant disruptive events.
Mineral resources
The global clean energy transition is driving a surge in demand for critical and strategic minerals, including lithium, cobalt, nickel, manganese, graphite, copper, aluminium and rare earth elements.
South Australia is rich in these resources, hosting major reserves and mines.
Circular economy strategies – such as extending product lifespans, recycling and recovering materials and minerals from end-of-life products – can significantly reduce demand for new mineral extraction and lower environmental impacts.
Within the mineral resources sector itself, circular economy opportunities include recovering critical and strategic minerals from mine tailings and other mining waste, and repurposing waste rock.
These approaches support both the clean energy transition and South Australia’s circular economy objectives, enabling more sustainable use of critical minerals while meeting growing global demand.
Key action
- 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.
