The impact of new international waste policies on the Australian construction and demolition waste stream

The launch of new waste policies by developing nations that ban waste import from other countries has put pressure on the waste management and recovery sector in Australia. Hence, the Australian state and territory governments have started to find solutions to mitigate its impact. However, the process to obtain such solutions need to be informed and backed by the industry key stakeholders' outlook. Therefore, this study aims to find out how various stakeholders perceive the impact of new waste policies and corresponding solutions. A cross-sectional (online) survey of a purposive sample of C&D waste management stakeholders operating in different Australian jurisdictions was conducted from June to September 2019. The results that are based on 132 collected responses showed that a majority of participants opined that the new policies have a positive impact on the Australian industry in the long run. The participants indicated that developing a domestic market for C&D waste is the best response to the new changes. Besides, the study presents open-ended responses on the nature of new policies impact on the Australian waste management and resource recovery sector. Lastly, the study provides a set of mitigating strategies extracted from academic sources to resolve the issues arising from implementing these policies. It is expected that the findings of this study assist policymakers and authorities in local agencies and government departments with providing the best solutions to the potential issues. Such findings would contribute to developing sound policies that do not negatively affect the key stakeholders.