On December 19, 2025, the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment published the draft National Waste Management Strategy (NWMS) 2026 for public comment. Many were quick to scrutinise the targets; both the 2020 ones that were not met, and the new five year targets.
We then asked ourselves, what ingredient is missing with the new NWMS? Why were we so far off from meeting the 2020 targets?
We don’t think that the answer lies in an incredible innovation or new technology. In fact, we actually think that the biggest change lies in how waste sector stakeholders shift their thinking around the role of communication.
This is not about marketing or PR. Communication is an enabling condition for behaviour change, for capacity building, for establishing new partnerships, for a shared understanding of responsibilities, for improving operational efficiency, and for opening up funding avenues.
The smallest mindset shift in how communication is prioritised can have a major impact on the greater system.
If we want to talk about a circular economy, we need to treat the waste value chain as one system, and this system needs to speak a single language.
Why is this important?
Waste sector stakeholders operate from different mandates and realities. Municipalities speak in the language of service delivery and budgets. Businesses speak in the language of compliance, procurement and risk. Waste pickers speak from lived experience because waste is both work and survival. Investors and NGOs rely on diversion metrics, traceability and ESG reporting because they need proof that interventions are working. When these languages do not meet, we aim in different directions – the system becomes fragmented and siloed.
Communication should do the work of bridging these linguistic and operational gaps, acting as the “connective tissue” that transforms individual mandates into collective action. Without a deliberate investment in this shared understanding, the NWMS 2026 runs the risk of remaining a document of intent rather than a traceable blueprint for the waste sector.
Do you think we can meet the landfill diversion target of 40% in the next five years?
What other support does the waste sector need to get there?