The Waste Management Association of Australia (WMAA) is the national peak body for all stakeholders in the waste and resource recovery industry. We have more than 1,900 members across the nation, representing a broad range of business organisations, the three (3) tiers of government, universities, and NGOs. Members are involved in a range of important waste management and resource recovery activities within the Australian economy, including community engagement and education, infrastructure investment and operations, collection, manufacturing of valuable products from resource recovered materials, energy recovery, and responsible management of residual materials

The waste and resource recovery industry is an essential industry for the community and continues to be a significant contributor to Australia’s economy and environment, contributing to Australia through: A turnover of over $15 billion per annum; Employing 50,000 Full Time Equivalent (FTE) persons;Reducing the pressure to utilise depleted virgin resources;Extending the life cycle of manufactured products; and Improving industrial ecology.

Gayle also discusses her response to last year's Meeting of Environment Ministers (MEM): “We may have a shared vision to transition to a circular economy and while we congratulate Ministers on adopting the 2018 National Waste Policy which includes circular economy principles, and we acknowledge that Ministers have voiced the need for the urgent development of an action plan, this simply does not go far enough, quickly enough. “As a start, there is not one action in the statement that would drive investment in the industry and the concern is that Ministers are simply kicking the can down the road considering there are two significant elections coming up in 2019. We need to ensure that the 2018 policy does not end up amounting to nothing very much like the 2009 iteration.” WMAA has consulted and engaged extensively with Ministers and commend them for listening to the industry.