The 2025 federal election was Australia's biggest yet, with 710,000 more people on the electoral roll than in 2022.
The Australian Election Commission used 250,000 pencils, 240,000 vests, 80,000 ballot boxes and 5000 rolls of tamper-proof tape to stock 7000 polling places.
RMIT University's Lisa Given said Australia needed to mandate an efficient approach to creating, using, recycling and disposing of election materials, and consider online voting to cut waste.
"We need to think creatively about this," Professor Given said.
She pointed to the example of Estonia, which has offered secure online voting since 2005 and more than 50 per cent of the population voted online in 2023.
"I'm of the view that if I can do my banking online and it's relatively secure, there must be a way for that to be scaled to other industries."
Australians are required to vote in-person and online voting would require changes to the law.
"I think what we want to see is that the government actually decides, 'hey, we should explore this and see what's possible'," Prof Given said.
But University of Adelaide political analyst Clem Macintyre said he was "not a fan" of online voting.
"I think while we've got the mood around the world where the results of elections that appear clear-cut and honest are doubted, the more physical evidence you can show for an outcome, the better," he said.
A key area of waste is the number of plastic corflutes produced for each election, many of which are not recycled.
The exception is South Australia, which last year banned corflutes except on private property.
"It's great that SA has taken that first step, corflutes are not easy to recycle," Prof Given said.
"They're generally single use, and the more that we can just stop creating them, the better off the environment is going to be."
Tasmania uses the Robson Rotation on its ballot papers, which rotates the order of candidates' names during printing, to eliminate so-called 'donkey voting' in which voters number candidates from top to bottom.
But this also has the side-effect of eliminating how-to-vote cards handed out by candidates and parties outside polling places.
QR codes could also be used at polling places to communicate parties' voting preferences, Prof Given said.
"I'd be happy to see the end of how-to-vote cards, because I think they're insidious, and I'd be happy to see the end of the corflutes," Prof Macintyre said.
Prof Given said it was important to "start this conversation" about waste reduction.
"For example, could we be mandating that any materials that are used have to be recycled?" she said.
"I think it was only the Australian Greens noting (their material is) 'printed on recycled paper'. Others aren't, and we know that that does reduce emissions."
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