Victoria's Recycled First Policy requires every tenderer on major transport projects to show how they will optimise recycled and reused materials within existing engineering standards.
Introduced in March 2020 under the ecologiQ program, it drives sustainable procurement and a circular economy across the state's Big Build, with each commitment reported during delivery rather than left as an intention. Now, all Victorian Government construction projects above $20 million will be applying the policy.
The Recycled First Policy is a Victorian Government requirement that, for the first time in Australia, asks contractors on major transport projects to optimise their use of recycled and reused materials. It applies at the tender stage, so the question of sustainability is settled before a contract is awarded rather than retrofitted later.
Importantly, the policy does not set mandatory minimum targets. It takes a project-by-project approach, recognising that the supply of recycled materials varies by location and product. What it does require is evidence and accountability:
The approach is working. Four years after the policy was introduced, the use of recycled and reused materials across Victoria's major infrastructure projects has almost doubled. On one project, around 100,000 tonnes of dirt, rock and clay excavated from a single site was reused on another, material that would otherwise have gone to landfill.
The policy's reach is also growing. In 2024, the Victorian Government announced that Recycled First would be extended beyond major transport projects to all construction projects, including building. That expansion widens the market for recycled materials again, and it means a far larger group of contractors will need to demonstrate and report recycled content as a condition of winning work.
The policy gives recycled materials a credible route into major projects, which is what shifts sustainable construction from ambition to practice. Materials such as recycled concrete, steel, plastic and glass are given a second life in roads, rail and supporting infrastructure rather than being treated as waste.
This matters for the wider circular economy. When every major project is required to demonstrate recycled content, demand for recycled materials becomes predictable, and a predictable market is what lets suppliers invest in capacity. Sustainable procurement stops being a single project's gesture and starts shaping the supply chain that serves the whole Big Build.
For sustainability and procurement teams, the practical effect is that recycled materials in major projects are now a commercial consideration at tender, not an afterthought during construction.
Alongside the Recycled First Policy, Sustainability Victoria's Buy Circular Service helped councils and project developers build sustainable procurement into the way they buy. Where Recycled First drives demand on major projects, Buy Circular extended circular economy thinking into local infrastructure, landscaping and parks by:
Responsibility for the Buy Recycled Directory has recently passed to ecologiQ under Victoria's Big Build, keeping the link between major projects and recycled material suppliers in place. Together, these initiatives lift demand for recycled materials from both ends, large state projects and local council works, which reduces environmental impact and gives the recycled materials sector a more stable market to supply.
A commitment made at tender only counts if it can be evidenced at delivery. The Recycled First Policy is explicit on this point: successful tenderers must report against their commitments as the project is built. That turns sustainable procurement into a data exercise as much as a material one.
This is where many projects struggle. Tracking recycled material volumes, supplier sources and substitution decisions across spreadsheets and site emails is not just slow, it is a risk. Spreadsheet-based processes cannot produce audit-ready, defensible evidence that commitments were met, and on a government project that gap is a compliance and reputational liability rather than an inconvenience. The SocialPro Reporting Time Calculator (socialpro.com.au/calculator) gives a sense of the hours manual tracking absorbs, which is a useful input when you are weighing a more structured approach.
If you are mapping out these obligations, the SocialPro Social Procurement Reporting Playbook (socialpro.com.au/playbook) sets out the reporting structures and the gaps that catch teams out.
SocialPro is a system of record for social and sustainable procurement, built to hold material and supplier data to the standard a government client or auditor expects.
The Recycled First Policy has shown that sustainable construction can be required, delivered and measured on the largest projects in the country. As more of the sector adopts circular economy principles, the projects that can prove their impact will be the ones that hold up under scrutiny. To see how SocialPro supports Recycled First reporting and sustainable procurement, book a demo with us today.
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