The solar panels arranged in rows across a solar power plant in Haryana, India, on April 22, 2026. Ritesh Shukla/Getty Images
New South Wales (NSW) is set to become the first Australian state to mandate solar panel recycling under a proposed product stewardship scheme aimed at keeping ageing panels out of landfill.
The Minns Labor Government has released a draft regulation and issues paper for public consultation.
The scheme would require solar panel brand owners to take responsibility for the end-of-life management of their products, funding collection, recycling and resource recovery across the state.
Under the scheme, solar panel brand owners are responsible for managing their products at the end of their life, including funding collection, recycling and resource recovery across the state.
“Solar panels contain valuable materials that can be recovered and put back to work.”
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NSW has more than 1.18 million rooftop solar systems on homes, businesses, schools and community facilities.
The state generates about 14,000 tonnes of solar panel waste each year, a figure predicted to rise to 89,000 tonnes by 2045 as systems age.
Materials from solar panels, such as aluminium, glass, silicon, copper and silver, can be recovered and reused in new products and manufacturing, the government said.
“A mandatory product stewardship scheme can help build a circular economy for solar panels, while supporting new recycling and manufacturing opportunities here in NSW,” Sharpe said.
Industry Calls for National Approach to Solar Panel Recycling
However, the Smart Energy Council (SEC) said solar panel recycling should not be left to individual states to solve.
SEC CEO David McElrea said the proposal was a strong foundation, but the industry was still waiting for the Commonwealth’s National Solar Panel Recycling Pilot.
“A patchwork of rules will be more inefficient and costly for consumers, business, industry and authorities.”
McElrea said that unless NSW’s scheme was incorporated into a national framework, more than 70 percent of Australia’s decommissioned solar panels would remain outside the scheme.
“The Federal government has to step up and deliver a national product stewardship framework to provide the scale, consistency, and certainty Australia needs,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Waste Management and Resource Recovery Association of Australia said the plan could attract investment into Australian recycling, remanufacturing and manufacturing.
“We will not create a circular economy simply by finding somewhere to recycle a product once it becomes waste. Stewardship changes the economics.”