Page 2076 - Week 06 - Wednesday, 5 June 2019
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
(j) the ACT Government currently provides green waste services to multi-unit developments and will investigate ways to improve waste collection in the future;
(k) the ACT has a target of zero net greenhouse gas emissions and achieving this requires the Government to address the emissions released by organic waste; and
(l) the ACT Government has been consulting on processing solutions for organic waste including anaerobic digestion; and
(2) calls on the ACT Government to:
(a) begin implementing a kerbside food organics and garden organics collection service as part of the existing ACT Government garden organics bin roll-out program by August 2020 with a roll out to all households by the end of 2023;
(b) require food businesses in the ACT to implement a “zero food waste to landfill” program involving composting, as well usable food to be donated to charities such as Ozharvest, with regulations or legislation for both to be in place by August 2020;
(c) assist multi-unit dwelling occupants who will not have access to the kerbside food organics and garden organics collection service by:
(i) supporting willing owners’ corporations to install food organics and garden organics options such as communal composting via a closed loop system, food scrap collection program or worm farms; and
(ii) investigating how food waste composting requirements can be best incorporated into regulations for new apartment developments; and
(d) report to the Assembly on progress by November 2019.
I have moved this motion today to give the community of Canberra a better way of disposing of food waste, changing it from being food waste to valuable, black-gold compost. Since we started, the ACT Greens have been calling for a zero waste economy. This involves reducing waste by refusing unneeded things and reusing things where possible. When waste is produced, some of it can be recycled and some of it can be turned into other valuable resources. Turning food waste into compost is a perfect example of this. We have called for action on food waste in our policies, in our election commitments and in all of our parliamentary agreements with the Labor Party for over a decade now.
This is far from being a niche, Greens-only issue. In 1996 the then ACT government introduced the NoWaste by 2010 strategy. We still have not got there yet but at the time the ACT led Australia in waste reduction.
In 2017 I moved a motion calling for the government to deliver a participatory budgeting pilot based on a discretionary portion of the city services budget. Participatory budgeting is an important way to increase citizen participation in democracy. It is more than just allowing community groups to make submissions. It involves direct community decision-making on expenditure.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video