Mandatory climate reporting
Your waste number now has to hold up to an auditor.
Australia's mandatory climate reporting is live. From their second reporting year, companies report their Scope 3 emissions, and an auditor reviews them. Waste is Scope 3, Category 5. Yarta gives you that number from the processor that handled your material, with the evidence behind every line.
June year-ends: 1 July 2026 to 30 June 2027 is the first Scope 3 year, reviewed by the auditor.
Scope 3 from the second year: 1 July 2027 for June year-ends. The data has to be in place before then.
Scope 3 from the year after, unless the company has no material climate risks and says so instead.
Who has to report, and when
Three groups. Scope 3 from each group's second year.
A company is in a group if it meets two of the three size tests. Companies that report under the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting scheme are captured too.
| Group | Two of these three | Financial years starting on or after | Scope 3 from |
|---|---|---|---|
| Group 1 | Revenue $500m+ · gross assets $1b+ · 500+ employees | 1 Jan 2025 | The second reporting year |
| Group 2 | Revenue $200m+ · gross assets $500m+ · 250+ employees | 1 Jul 2026 | The second reporting year |
| Group 3 | Revenue $50m+ · gross assets $25m+ · 100+ employees | 1 Jul 2027 | The second reporting year, if climate risks are material |
Waste is one of the 15 Scope 3 categories. The standard (AASB S2) requires a company to consider all 15 and disclose the ones it includes, so waste is in the number wherever it is material: property, retail, construction, manufacturing, logistics and hospitality usually; a bank or a software company usually not.
Check your reporting year
Which group are you in, and when does waste count?
Four answers, no email required. It runs in your browser and nothing is sent anywhere.
- First reporting year
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- First Scope 3 year
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- Auditor review of Scope 3
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General information based on the thresholds published by ASIC and summarised by KPMG (updated 31 August 2026). It is not legal or accounting advice: confirm your position with your auditor. National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting obligations can place a company in a group regardless of size.
What your auditor will ask
Seven questions about your waste number. Each one answered on the report.
Limited assurance means an auditor reviews how the number was built. These are the questions that review asks of a waste figure, and where Yarta answers them.
On the report: the program, sites, streams and period, and which entries were handed to the processor versus evidenced by you.
Stated per line: the processor's own energy use for handling your material, and published landfill factors by waste type for anything landfilled.
Printed with the figure: the National Greenhouse Accounts edition and the source of every factor, pinned to the method version.
Published unit weights with their status, and weighbridge tonnes wherever the load was weighed.
Reported separately and never counted as recycled. It moves in the period it moves, with a line pointing back to the original receipt.
Always. Avoided emissions are an estimate in their own box beside the inventory figure, never deducted from it and never an offset.
Every ledger line carries the docket, count sheet or processor record it came from, and the initials of the Yarta operator who entered it. Customers never type their own figures.
Three ways to calculate waste emissions
Start at the top: the processor's own data.
The GHG Protocol ranks three methods for waste. Most companies are stuck on the bottom one because nobody can tell them what happened to their material. Yarta works from the top two.
Supplier-specific
The waste company's own emissions for handling your material, allocated to your tonnes. Only the processor holds this data.
Waste-type-specific
Tonnes by waste type and treatment, multiplied by published factors. Yarta applies the National Greenhouse Accounts landfill factor to every landfilled tonne.
Average-data
Industry averages or spend-based estimates. Permitted, but it is what a company falls back on when nobody can give it the tonnes.
Working processing values are published as illustrative on the Yarta Method page until metered data replaces them. Designed to support Scope 3 Category 5 reporting and third-party assurance; Yarta does not certify compliance with any standard.
What's changing
The rules are settling. Scope 3 is staying.
We keep this page current. The position below is as at 28 September 2026.
Treasury consultation · closes 2 October 2026
Easier assurance, fewer supply-chain data requests
Treasury is consulting on reducing compliance costs: changing the assurance rules, clarifying key terms, and reducing the burden of information requests along supply chains. KPMG's reading is that it will not change what is reported for 2026–27, and Scope 3 disclosure is still required.
What that means for waste: a supplier who hands you audit-ready numbers without being asked removes exactly the burden the reform is aimed at.
Councils
Not covered by this law, still asked the question
Councils are not companies under the Corporations Act, so this regime does not apply to them. Their waste reporting runs through state frameworks, such as audited kerbside diversion indicators, and through the companies they contract with, who increasingly need the numbers.
Sources: ASIC, who must prepare a sustainability report · KPMG, updated 31 Aug 2026 · AASB S2 · AUASB, assurance phasing · Treasury consultation · GHG Protocol, Category 5 guidance
The first step
Get your waste number from the processor.
Book a 30-minute walkthrough. We'll show you the Category 5 figure, the evidence behind it and the export your auditor will read, on one month of your own data.