A wasteful election: how to make voting more sustainable

The recent federal election was the nation’s largest to date, with a huge amount of waste produced by traditional voting processes. RMIT experts explain how future elections could be made more sustainable.

Co-authors Lisa Given, Gary Rosengarten and Matt Duckham

Key points:

The Australian Election Commission amassed 250,000 pencils, 240,000 vests, 80,000 ballot boxes and 5,000 rolls of tamper-proof tape to stock some 7,000 polling places for the 2025 federal election.
Australia needs to mandate a cradle-to-grave approach to creating, using, recycling and disposing of election materials.
Many countries are “greening” their elections. In 2019, India’s election commission directed parties to eliminate single-use plastic including corflutes.
Australia relies heavily on disposable election materials. While many of these can be recycled, it’s better to avoid single-use materials.
Other countries are introducing online voting to reduce waste. One study in Estonia found the carbon footprint of paper-based voting was 180 times greater than internet-based voting.
Some print materials may always be needed, because not all voters can access digital content or vote online. But the current situation is unsustainable.
Australia’s newly elected officials have an opportunity to green future elections, adopting a more sophisticated approach to voting in a digital age. There’s no excuse for producing mountains of plastic and paper waste every three or four years.

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RMIT University acknowledges the people of the Woi wurrung and Boon wurrung language groups of the eastern Kulin Nation on whose unceded lands we conduct the business of the University. RMIT University respectfully acknowledges their Ancestors and Elders, past and present. RMIT also acknowledges the Traditional Custodians and their Ancestors of the lands and waters across Australia where we conduct our business - Artwork 'Sentient' by Hollie Johnson, Gunaikurnai and Monero Ngarigo.

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A wasteful election: how to make voting more sustainable