This report details how Australia uses its resources, linking human consumption to environmental impacts, which can inform approaches to resource efficiency, waste minimisation, and greenhouse gas abatement.

The report used data on economy-wide material flows for 2019 to provide insights into Australia’s circular economy potential.

Key findings:

• The circularity rate of Australia is around 4 per cent. The authors calculated the maximum theoretical circularity rate achievable for Australia under today’s economic structure to be 32 per cent.
• Transport and housing make up more than half of Australia’s material footprint, followed by food, highlighting circular economy opportunities in a range of sectors.
• In 2019, Australia extracted and harvested 2,587 million tonnes of materials. These virgin materials were supplemented with 119 million tonnes of imports and 39 million tonnes of domestically recycled materials. More than half of these materials were exported to other countries.
• Australia currently recycles 39 million tonnes of materials, which is about half of all materials captured through municipal, industrial, and construction waste schemes. The other half is going to landfill.