Page 2115 - Week 06 - Tuesday, 8 May 2012
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MS HUNTER: Minister, what proportion of fluorescent tubes and compact fluorescent globes currently goes into ACT landfill?
MS GALLAGHER: I will have to take that question on notice and see if we can provide that information. I would say that the people who run the tips and the recycling centre do an extraordinary job in making sure we minimise what goes to landfill. I think they in many ways have led the country. I think Adelaide is probably sitting on par with us. We need to make sure that we continue to look at new ways of recycling a whole range of materials and reduce the impact to landfill. There have been some education programs that have been rolled out recently, which I think are very informative in terms of how people should use their green bins and their yellow bins, to try and again reinforce the message and in a sense reduce what goes to landfill and any contamination that happens to materials that can be recycled. But in terms of that specific question, I will take that on notice and come back to you.
MR SMYTH: Supplementary, Mr Speaker.
MR SPEAKER: Yes, Mr Smyth.
MR SMYTH: Thank you, Mr Speaker. Chief Minister, no waste by 2010 had an objective of new processes and industries to address problems like fluorescent tubes. Has your government’s abandonment of the no waste by 2010 strategy left you without the answers that Ms Le Couteur desires?
MS GALLAGHER: No, not at all, Mr Speaker. I would say, as I just said then, that the work that is being done by the team at NOWaste, who actively manage the waste to landfill and who are examining our future requirements do an incredible job. As far as I understand it, we are either leading the nation in terms of effort going into this—
Mr Smyth: No, no, we used to lead the nation.
MS GALLAGHER: I think we still actually lead the nation, Mr Smyth. I think Adelaide is coming very close and we are conscious of that. We would like to continue our record. So I would actually say that everyone does an incredible job at looking at these issues.
Take e-waste, for example. We have led the way in terms of recycling those materials. Many, many jurisdictions still dump that waste into landfill. The ACT does not. We will have the new stewardship scheme up and running on 15 May that will assist people with costs around recycling e-waste.
So I would say that the team out there does an incredible job. But there are always ways that we can improve on that, look at new ways of recycling more materials and make sure that we continue to reduce our waste to landfill.
University of Canberra and Canberra Institute of Technology
MRS DUNNE: My question is to the minister for education. Minister, in a television interview last Friday night in reference to the government’s rejection of the Bradley
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