Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .

Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2002 Week 13 Hansard (19 November) . . Page.. 3751 ..

MS DUNDAS (continuing):

and sale. We all need to be pushing for the full costing of manufacturing and disposal to reflect the flow-on environmental impacts. But it is not something that we in the ACT can do alone; it does require national and international cooperation.

In the ACT the total weight of waste going to landfill has actually declined by 13 per cent since 1996, and the amount of material being removed from the waste stream has risen by 116 per cent. In reducing waste to landfill, the largest reduction has been brought about by an increase in tip charges for private delivery to landfill. Although there may have been a small increase in illegal dumping, far more waste has ended up being reused or recycled because there is now a financial incentive to do so.

I think it is incredibly important to remember that we have been able to divert waste away from landfill. We know that what is needed is a true commitment. However, it is disappointing to see that money in this year's budget is to be used for building a new trench as opposed to seeing if we can increase and improve on the targets we have already set for diverting waste away from landfill.

Another area where there has been a substantial reduction in waste to landfill is the construction industry. We have amendments to the Building Act that now require a waste management plan to be incorporated into an application for approval of building demolition or refurbishment. Again, this change has greatly increased the recovery of metals and other demolition waste. However, commercial and industrial waste and actual household collection going to landfill has increased slightly since 1996, and these are areas that clearly need greater focus by the government, business and the community.

The National Packaging Covenant signed by Australia and New Zealand in 1999 is making some inroads. Though it is a voluntary covenant, the growth of the movement promoting corporate responsibility has led to a high level of compliance by Australian packaging manufacturers. The goals of the covenant are to minimise the environmental impacts of consumer packaging waste throughout the entire life cycle of the packaging product, close the recycling loop, and help develop economically viable and sustainable recycling collection systems.

We need similar programs in every industry, and I commend successive ACT governments for the work they have done to achieve this. But, clearly, we have more work to do if we are to meet our target of no waste by 2010. More community education is needed, as public awareness is not keeping up with developments in the waste management field. The ACT government needs to do more internally if it is to achieve best practice. Even here in the Assembly, each office is not automatically issued with a bin to separate glass and plastics, and it would be hypocritical of us to call on the community to try harder when we could be doing more ourselves. We know that every little bit counts.

Another area in which we could improve is that of food waste going to landfill. The bio-bin trial earlier this year and late last year showed that there are new ways of diverting waste away from landfill, and it is disappointing that that trial was not picked up and continued across the territory. I understand that there were problems with it, but we need to be able to work through these problems to find solutions. Not everybody has the ability to compost, and as we move to more high-density and medium-density dwellings in the ACT to enable us to deal with our land shortage, fewer people are going to be able

Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .