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The construction industry has one of the highest waste intensities in Australia. While currently there are barriers to the implementation of sustainable waste management (WM) practices, there is a lack of viable solutions to overcome these barriers. This research aims at examining the main barriers and issues to the implementation of sustainable WM in the Australian commercial construction industry with a focus on incentivization as a possible solution. To this end, a qualitative approach through interviewing experts in the field is adopted to explore new ideas around possible solutions to the issue. Thus, 13 online semi-structured interviews were conducted with experts in the Australian construction industry and the findings show that participants are willing to use more sustainable WM practices, however, the barriers are too substantial. The findings also indicate solutions such as influencing WM practices by stakeholders (client, government, and industry regulators) through financial incentives, mandating measurable and relevant KPIs, amending existing legislations, implementing stewardship programs, conducting audits on waste contractors to improve the waste reporting reliability, and creating separate waste streams to foster a Circular Economy. This study benefits researchers and practitioners by shifting their focus more towards solutions around the incentivization of head contractors (HC) towards sustainable WM practices.