Waste management services in Australia recovered or reprocessed a total of 13.2 million tonnes of material from waste in 2009-10, according to figures released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). Nationally, this represents a rate of waste diversion from landfill of 42.6%. South Australia had the highest waste diversion rate of 66.3%.

Almost 10.4 million tonnes of material were recovered at waste facilities other than landfill. This included 2.2 million tonnes of metal, 1.7 million tonnes of paper and cardboard, and 1.7 million tonnes of construction and demolition waste.

An estimated 2,120 private and public trading sector businesses and 547 general government sector organisations were involved in the Australian waste management services industry, employing a total of 32,737 people.

Waste management services businesses in the private and public trading sector had a total income of $8.6b. The main source of income was from the provision of waste services ($5.1b), consisting of $4.3b for non-recyclable waste and $0.8b for recyclables. Sales of recyclable material contributed another $2.2b or 26% of total income.

Larger businesses with 100 or more employees made up less than 1% of all private and public sector businesses, yet they contributed 54.4% of employment, 68.2% of total income and 69.9% of total expenses.

 The report, Waste Management Services, Australia, 2009-10 (cat. no. 8698.0), is available here.