Accelerating Australia’s Circular Water Economy Report spotlights a sector holding largely untapped economic potential. Water carries nutrients, minerals, metals, energy, and chemicals through every treatment plant in the country, most of it discharged rather than recovered. Produced by Circular Australia, the Australian Water Association, Arup, and SUEZ, this report shows how one of the nation’s most fundamental infrastructure systems can move from a linear, single-use model to one that captures and circulates value at every stage.

Drawing on industry interviews, desktop research, and case study analysis from Australia and overseas, the report maps four interconnected value chains, water recovery and reuse, nutrients, salts and metals, energy and bio-products, and components and chemicals, to show where circular opportunities already exist and where the greatest lost value sits.

It sets out the policy, market, and investment shifts needed to unlock these opportunities at scale, aligned with Australia’s national ambition to double circularity by 2035. The report provides a consolidated evidence base for utilities, industry, and government to move recycled water, resource recovery, and energy generation from pilot projects to mainstream infrastructure investment.