The National Environmental Science Program managed by the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water has established a 7-year Research Hub on Sustainable Communities and Waste (SCaW). The SCaW Hub partners across the University of New South Wales, CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific & Industrial Research Organisation), Monash University, Curtin University and the University of Tasmania, along with a range of government and industry agencies, and aims to research ways to reduce the effects of plastic, support sustainable people-environment interactions and offer options to minimise impacts of hazardous substances and pollutants, using its cutting edge technical capabilities, particularly in the fields of waste and materials processing. A research priority area within the Hub is the Management of Hazardous Waste, Substances and Pollutants. Here, we outline the focus and plans of the research priority. Ambitions are to build a nationally linked Program enabling the safe reuse of otherwise waste materials, addressing priority goals of the federal, state, territory, local and regional governments of Australia while supporting industry to operate under appropriate safeguards and regulation. Part of the ambition is to support the creation of nationally acceptable methods, approaches and guidance on testing and evaluating waste materials. An initial focus, based on priorities across Australia, is end-of-life tyres and electronic waste. Apart from quantifying chemically what’s in such waste, it is critical to understand what might be releasable from waste, either when disposed of as waste or in a reuse scenario. Short- and longer-term plans will be outlined, along with the initial outputs of the research and the first sampling guidance for such waste materials.