Page 442 - Week 02 - Thursday, 11 February 2021
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Resource Recovery Act 2016, which means that waste and recovered resources should be managed as close to the source of generation as possible. We have an obligation as a community to ensure that we are managing our own waste that we produce in the ACT and plan for the most appropriate location to manage this waste, including sites in the ACT, as the city grows and changes. Most Canberrans, who are very environmentally conscious, understand our responsibility to manage our own waste in the territory, just as other jurisdictions like New South Wales need to do the same.
The legislation builds on this objective to appropriately manage waste in the ACT and ensures that it occurs in the most appropriate location for doing so within our compact boundaries. Hume is currently the ACT’s established resource recovery area, the site of the ACT’s materials recovery facility, the MRF, which will soon be upgraded through our $21 million co-funded investment under the Recycling Modernisation Fund. It is also home to a range of non-government and private waste facilities.
The role of Hume was set out in the ACT Waste Management Strategy 2011-2025, which is the guiding document for the development of solutions to waste issues in the ACT. In relation to the location of waste facilities, the document establishes the strategy to further develop the Hume resource recovery estate to collocate resource recovery facilities and that new waste infrastructure will primarily be located in the Hume resource recovery estate beside the Mugga Lane Resource Management Centre.
The strategy notes that there are a number of benefits that arise from the collocation of waste facilities in the Hume resource recovery estate, including the synergies between different parts of the recycling industry which could result in increased resource recovery, reduced costs and reduced traffic movements.
Following the waste management strategy, the ACT government’s waste feasibility study in 2018 delivered a road map required to continue our efforts and drive resource recovery in the territory. The study highlighted that planning for future waste facilities and infrastructure would need to consider demographic changes, societal trends and the patterns of urban growth over time.
It was noted that while the existing system of waste facilities and services were well suited to Canberra’s low-density suburban form and lifestyles prevalent in previous decades, the composition of our community and how we live and work is fundamentally changing. To this end, there are increasing pressures on planning for waste facilities, and government and non-government waste facilities need to consider appropriate geographic location, efficient design and effectively laid out facilities. In no area is this more pertinent than Fyshwick.
Fyshwick was originally conceived of and zoned for industrial uses; however, it has evolved over many years to include a diverse range of activity and uses, including a mix of cafes, retail stores, breweries, recreational facilities, industrial sites and hardware stores. A range of waste facilities already operate in Fyshwick; for example, small scale-waste facilities, including the ACT’s container deposit scheme Return-it depot on Gladstone Street.
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