Vaughan Levitzke

Vaughan Levitzke is a trained ecologist well known for his dedication to improving South Australia's waste and recycling sector. While at the SA EPA he helped expand container deposits in 2002 and regulated the tyre industry, before becoming inaugural Chief Executive of Zero Waste SA in 2003. He went on to oversee Australia's first single-use plastic bags ban (2009), the formation of Green Industries SA (2016), and Australia's first circular economy strategy (2017). He also delivered Australia's first ban on single-use plastic items and led the waste cleanup following the 2019–2020 bushfires, alongside hundreds of millions of dollars in recycling infrastructure and research grants.

Vaughan received the Public Service Medal in 2015 and the international IconSWM-CE Lifetime Achievement Award in 2021. He left government in July 2021 after 43 years, including 17 as a Chief Executive. He now leads his consulting firm, Circular Economy Advisory, and is a member of the Commonwealth Government's Ministerial Circular Economy Advisory Group.