Coalition Urges Mandatory Solar PV Stewardship as Australia Faces Growing Waste Crisis

A coalition of 60 peak industry bodies, businesses, unions, local governments, community and environmental groups has urged the Australian government to introduce a mandatory product stewardship scheme for solar PV panels within the current parliamentary term.

In a joint statement, the coalition highlighted Australia’s global leadership in household solar adoption but warned that the absence of a structured recycling and reuse framework poses a major threat to the renewable energy sector.

Smart Energy Council Chief Executive John Grimes said millions of solar panels are being decommissioned each year, yet less than five per cent are recycled.

“Not because we don’t know how – we can recover more than 95 per cent of the precious resources in modules – but because consecutive governments have failed to act on delivering a sustainable stewardship ecosystem, including design, reuse, recycling, and remanufacture,” Grimes said.

He cautioned that panel decommissionings are expected to double, creating a mounting waste crisis with serious environmental and social consequences. He added that recycling businesses, which have invested heavily in anticipation of a national scheme, risk stagnation and job losses if policy inaction continues.

The coalition stressed that a mandatory scheme could unlock a $6.5 billion opportunity by recovering valuable materials, bolstering Australia’s critical mineral security, and driving innovation, domestic industries, and job creation.

“This is a resource solution, rather than a waste problem,” Grimes said, calling on the government to also establish a funded pilot program in the interim to support scheme design, build industry capacity, and ensure long-term success.