Overview
The Victorian Government announced in the May/June 2024 state budget that Recycling Victoria will formally merge with EPA Victoria, effective 1 July 2025, establishing a new Circular Economy division within the state’s environmental regulator. This structural consolidation transfers all of Recycling Victoria’s regulatory programs and administrative functions to the EPA, creating a single authoritative body responsible for both traditional environmental protection and Victoria’s resource recovery and circular economy agenda. The decision represents the most significant restructuring of Victoria’s waste and resource recovery regulatory architecture since the Circular Economy (Waste Reduction and Recycling) Act 2021 was enacted.
For environmental professionals, this is not a cosmetic administrative reshuffle. It fundamentally changes the regulatory interface for any project that involves waste processing, resource recovery, waste-to-energy generation, or material reuse. Developers and infrastructure operators who previously navigated separate approval streams, one through Recycling Victoria for capacity and scheme licensing, and another through EPA Victoria for environmental and operating licences, will now deal with a single integrated regulator. That integration carries both genuine efficiencies and new compliance expectations that project teams need to understand before lodging any new applications or progressing existing ones.
Local councils managing waste contracts, landfill operations, and resource recovery infrastructure are equally affected. Container Deposit Scheme administration, waste data reporting obligations, and long-term infrastructure planning under the 30-year Victorian Recycling Infrastructure Plan (VRIP) will all sit inside an organisation with the EPA’s established enforcement culture and field inspection capability. The practical implications of that cultural shift are significant and warrant careful consideration by anyone currently operating or planning to operate waste facilities in Victoria.
Key details of the Recycling Victoria and EPA Victoria merger
The merger takes effect on 1 July 2025 and is not a transitional or interim arrangement. From that date, the EPA will administer the full suite of Recycling Victoria’s regulatory functions. These include the Waste to Energy Scheme, which operates under the Circular Economy (Waste Reduction and Recycling) (Waste to Energy Scheme) Regulations 2023 (Vic) and involves the issuing and administration of capacity allocation permits (CAP licences) that set output thresholds for waste-to-energy facilities. The Container Deposit Scheme (CDS Vic), which manages the refund obligations and network coordination for eligible beverage containers across the state, also transfers in full. Circular economy risk and contingency planning functions, the Recycling Victoria Data Hub, and implementation oversight of the VRIP all move under the EPA’s organisational structure.
The legislative backbone for the merged entity spans two principal Acts. The Environment Protection Act 2017 (Vic) governs the EPA’s core environmental protection, licensing, and enforcement functions, including works approvals and operating licences for scheduled premises. The Circular Economy (Waste Reduction and Recycling) Act 2021 (Vic) governs waste reduction targets, resource recovery determinations, and the circular economy programs previously administered by Recycling Victoria. Both instruments will now be administered by a single regulatory body. This is consequential because conditions imposed under one Act can now be cross-referenced with obligations under the other, enabling the EPA to attach circular economy performance requirements to environmental licences and vice versa.
The Waste to Energy Scheme is a particularly technical area where the merger will be felt immediately. Under the existing CAP licensing framework, Victoria has set strict capacity limits on energy recovery from residual waste, with facilities required to demonstrate that feedstocks cannot be practically recycled or recovered. The EPA will inherit the assessment methodology for these determinations, which involves reviewing waste composition data, resource recovery market conditions, and facility gate prices. Operators holding existing CAP licences should expect that renewal and variation applications will now be assessed under EPA processes, which typically involve more rigorous public consultation requirements and longer assessment timeframes than Recycling Victoria’s historical approach.
The Recycling Victoria Data Hub, which collects mandatory waste and resource recovery data from councils, facility operators, and scheme participants, will continue operating as a reporting mechanism under the EPA. Operators who currently submit data to this system should note that any discrepancies between reported data and field-inspection findings will now be assessed under the EPA’s compliance and enforcement policy framework, which categorises breaches by harm potential and applies proportionate responses including formal notices, licence conditions, and financial penalties under the Environment Protection Act 2017.
Australian context: how this merger relates to national waste and contamination frameworks
Victoria’s decision to consolidate circular economy regulation within its EPA sits within a broader national trend toward integrating waste management, resource recovery, and environmental protection under unified regulatory frameworks. At the national level, Australia’s waste policy is shaped by the National Waste Policy Action Plan and a range of product stewardship schemes administered by the Commonwealth. However, operational regulation, including facility licensing, waste classification, and resource recovery standards, remains a state function. This means the Victorian merger has no direct effect on Commonwealth schemes but does position the state as a test case for how a single regulator can carry both environmental protection and circular economy mandates simultaneously. Other state jurisdictions and industry bodies will be watching closely to see whether the integrated model delivers more consistent outcomes for facility operators, or whether the EPA’s enforcement culture creates additional friction for resource recovery projects that require flexibility to respond to volatile secondary materials markets.
References and related sources
- Primary source: www.vic.gov.au
- www.vic.gov.au
- epa.vic.gov.au
- ashurst.com
- wastemanagementreview.com.au
- PFAS National Environmental Management Plan (NEMP)
- EPA Victoria
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This is an iEnvi Machete news summary. Prepared by iEnvi to summarise the source article for contaminated land, groundwater, remediation, approvals and site risk professionals.
Published: 14 Jun 2026
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