Commercial and industrial waste is waste generated by businesses. It excludes construction and demolition waste, which is reported independently due to the amount generated.

Waste data is published annually through the Recycling and Waste in Queensland report, which includes an interactive visualisation of data since 2015-16.

In 2023-24:

• the proportion of commercial and industrial waste diverted from landfill was 54.6% (the current target is 65% by 2025).
• Private sector waste facilities (landfills, monofills and incinerators) handled 48.3% of the total waste sent for disposal. Of the waste sent to disposal, private sector facilities reported 59.9% is commercial and industrial waste.
• Over a million tonnes of metal were recovered, including approximately 928,000 tonnes of ferrous metal, approximately 45,000 tonnes of aluminium and approximately 70,000 tonnes of other non-ferrous metal¹.
• Close to 761,670 tonnes of segregated green waste were recovered, of which 59% was from domestic sources and the remainder 41% from commercial sources.
• Other organic materials processed included approximately 277,000 tonnes of timber, approximately 294,000 tonnes of sawmill residuals, approximately 187,000 tonnes of manure, approximately 118,000 tonnes of abattoir waste, approximately 101,000 tonnes of biosolids and approximately 93,000 tonnes of grease trap waste.
• Approximately 1.1 million tonnes of ash (20.9% of the 5.3 million tonnes reported) were recovered.
• Approximately 709,000 tonnes of paper and packaging materials were recovered. The main components included approximately 337,000 tonnes of cardboard, approximately 200,000 tonnes of paper, approximately 114,000 tonnes of packaging glass, approximately 30,000 tonnes of packaging plastic, approximately 21,000 tonnes of aluminium cans, approximately 5,700 tonnes of steel cans and approximately 1,000 tonnes of liquid paperboard.
• Approximately 96,000 tonnes of waste (including timber, green waste, food waste, sawmill residuals, tyres, paint, solvents, chemicals, mineral oil and oily water) were sent to energy recovery.

1  Recovered metal can be reported to the department as commercial and industrial or construction and demolition. For the purpose of SoE reporting, recovered metal has been consolidated under commercial and industrial.