Waste Management in Australia Is an Environmental Crisis: What Needs to Change so Adaptive Governance Can Help?

Abstract

Research suggests that strengthening cooperation between governments is required to support improved policy outcomes. Despite established cooperative agreements between the levels of government in Australia, a lack of urgency and consistency continues to drive unsustainable approaches toward waste management practices. Adaptive governance has emerged as a potential approach for addressing complexity, with multiple actors collaborating in the design and implementation of challenging environmental issues. The main findings of this research highlight key challenges in multilevel systems and reforms required to establish institutional arrangements that support key adaptive governance enablers in the context of cooperative approaches to waste management.