Victoria’s Recycled First Policy 4 years on

Four years after Victoria’s Recycled First Policy (RFP) was introduced in March 2020, the use of recycled and reused materials across Victoria’s major infrastructure projects has almost doubled and 2.5 million tonnes of waste diverted from landfill.

The policy requires all tenders on Victorian major transport projects to optimise the use of recycled and reused materials at the levels allowed under current standards and specifications.

In 2023, ecologiQ undertook a review of all projects procured under the RFP since its inception to assess the effectiveness of the policy and the ecologiQ program in driving greater use of recycled and reused materials.

In total, 26 road and 6 rail projects made up the review (through to late 2023). Projects include metropolitan and regional road upgrades delivered by Major Road Projects Victoria (MRPV) and metropolitan and regional rail upgrades delivered by Rail Projects Victoria (RPV).

The result of that review is ecologiQ’s Recycled First Summary Report. The report speaks to several different interests, including:

• the amount of recycled and reused materials adopted on our projects
• trends in the use of certain materials and future opportunities for greater use
• feedback from contractors and lessons learned
• prioritising certain waste materials to overcome adoption barriers
• the future demand for recycled and reused materials.

You can download and read the summary report in full here.

If you have any questions or to tell us what you think about the summary report, please email us at ecologiq@roadprojects.vic.gov.au.