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Currently, in Australia mainly green waste is composted in open windrow operations, often together with biosolids. Large quantities of domestic and industrial organic waste materials are not utilised at present. Relatively low landfill charges, problematic collection and processing conditions of food waste, marketing problems and very tight public budgets pose significant obstacles to the further development of organic waste recycling. MSW composting was introduced recently but is not seen as a long-term solution to this situation. Other organic waste management systems developed and implemented recently in Australia, e.g. for on-site composting or large scale vermicomposting are rather seen as viable and as having potential for overseas application. The conversion of green waste to energy is discussed. The outlined issues give rise to the need for a fundamental assessment of the way in which organic waste resources are to be utilised to obtain the most beneficial environmental, social and economic outcome from a national perspective.