The NSW government has kicked off consultation into the introduction of a mandatory recycling scheme for solar panels that could set a national benchmark, and bypass a roadblock created by the stalled federal scheme.
The nation’s first mandatory solar panel recycling scheme – consultation for which began on Monday – aims to handle a rising tide of waste as aging solar photovoltaic systems reach end of life or are replaced by larger, more efficient systems.
The proposed mandatory product stewardship would be covered by the product lifecycle responsibility Act introduced by the Minns Labor government last year, initially for batteries.
“Current disposal pathways are insufficient to safely and sustainably manage this growing waste stream,” the state’s environment protection authority said in its consultation paper. “Most end-of-life PV panels continue to be landfilled, stockpiled or illegally dumped.”
NSW hosts about a quarter of the country’s small-scale PV, with 1.18 million solar systems installed on roofs of homes, schools, businesses and community buildings.
About 14,000 tonnes of solar panel waste is generated in the state each year, a figure the government predicts will rise almost five-fold to 89,000 tonnes by 2045.
“NSW has embraced rooftop solar, and now we’re making sure those panels don’t become tomorrow’s landfill problem,” Penny Sharpe, NSW’s environment minister, said in a statement, adding that panels held valuable materials that could be recovered and put back to work.
“A mandatory product stewardship scheme can help build a circular economy for solar panels, while supporting new recycling and manufacturing opportunities here in NSW.”
The NSW government has stepped up to fill a void caused by the delay in a federal scheme intended to pilot panel collection, recycling and reuse. The regulations were specifically designed to picked up and adopted by other states and the commonwealth itself.
The recycling industry has appealed to the federal government to revive a pilot recycling scheme that has been gummed up since May, with one waste firm saying recyclers would go to the wall if the impasse was not resolved.
Indeed, environment ministers from the states, territories and the commonwealth met in Brisbane last week, with the management of solar panels among the topics discussed.
Ministers “endorsed principles and design features for a nationally aligned product stewardship scheme for solar panels, supporting urgent action to manage growing end-of-life solar panel waste, protect the social licence for the renewable energy transition, and build Australia’s solar panel recycling capability, the ministers’ communique stated.
“Ministers noted NSW’s work to finalise mandatory regulation by the end of 2026, with this model regulation capable of adoption by participating jurisdictions or transition to a future Commonwealth scheme,” it said.
The Waste Management and Resource Recovery Association of Australia said it “strongly welcomed” the NSW government’s move, saying it could help create the scale and certainty needed to attract investment into Australian recycling.
WMRR’s Chief executive, Gayle Sloan, said the proposal recognised a fundamental principle: those who design, manufacture and supply complex products must share responsibility for their entire lifecycle.
“Stewardship changes the economics. It creates the incentive to make products last longer, to design them for repair, reuse and recycling, and to recover valuable materials at the end of their first life rather than continually extracting virgin resources,” Sloan said.
“If businesses know panels will be collected, if recyclers know what materials are coming back and manufacturers know there will be reliable secondary material streams, we can start building the investment case for Australian processing and manufacturing,” she said.
Suzanne Toumbourou, chief executive of the Australian Council of Recycling, also welcomed the NSW’s launch.
“Anyone who’s stepping up to manage solar panel waste, we commend,” particularly as the federal scheme remains “under a cloud”, she told Renew Economy. “It’s good to see at least one government is stepping forward to provide some certainty.”
The absence of coordinated federal efforts to introduce container deposit schemes has left the country with eight different efforts across the various jurisdictions, an outcome the industry would not want to see repeated, Toumbourou said.
“We need to see a unified front” to move the solar recycling stewardship forward, she said.
NSW’s proposed mandatory product stewardship scheme would require solar panel brand owners to take responsibility for end-of-life management of their products, helping to fund the collection, recycling and resource recovery across the state, the government said.
“As larger volumes of materials are recovered, NSW will be better placed to build local supply chains, strengthen manufacturing capability, encourage innovation and create skilled jobs across the state,” it said.
The materials of interest include silver, copper, aluminium and silicon. Degrading PV panels, however, can also leach toxic metals such as lead, chromium and silver, the EPA said.
“Local councils – often already facing limited landfill space – are increasingly burdened by clean-up and waste-management costs,” the agency said, adding PV panel recyclers “currently face high logistics costs, inconsistent feedstock, limited end markets and economic viability challenges.”
Renew Economy approached the federal government for comment.
Public consultation is now open until 5pm on November 16th.
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Peter Hannam
Peter Hannam is a veteran journalist whose work spans almost four decades and includes stints outside Australia, including time in China, Japan, Singapore and Mongolia. He has lately reported extensively on energy, climate and environmental issues in Australia, and also worked for the federal Climate Change Authority as a special media advisor.
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