Page 2155 - Week 06 - Wednesday, 5 June 2019
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
As Canberra continues to take up solar panel and battery storage, the next issue that will face us here in the ACT is safe disposal of failing panels and dying batteries. This is a serious issue. The media report I referred to earlier called the thousands of ageing rooftop solar panels “a toxic time-bomb” unless Australia acts swiftly to keep them out of landfill.
In April 2018 environment ministers from all jurisdictions apparently agreed to fast-track the development of a new stewardship program for photovoltaic solar panels and associated batteries. Stewardship programs make producers and retailers take responsibility for a product across its life cycle.
Australia already has a number of industry stewardship programs. For example, the ACT houses the head office of Agsafe, which manages DrumMUSTER and ChemClear, agriculture industry funded programs for farmers to dispose of their empty chemical drums. The cost of the scheme is embedded in the retail price of the product, so the user, in effect, is paying for the service.
Since environment ministers met last year and agreed to fast-track such a system, the ACT time bomb has been lit, with Canberrans embracing solar technology at an ever faster rate. The first panels installed are getting close to—I hesitate to use the term, Madam Deputy Speaker—their use-by date.
The life of a solar panel appears to vary depending on what advertising hype you care to believe, but it is agreed that as they get closer to their use-by date, be that 15, 20 or 30 years, they start to lose their strength and finally stop working entirely. The Total Environment Centre’s Jeff Angel, who was a former federal government adviser on stewardship programs, has been quoted as saying that action was long overdue and the delay reveals a fundamental weakness in Australia’s waste policies. He said:
We’ve had a solar panel industry for years which is an important environmental initiative, and it should have been incumbent on government to act in concert with the growth of the industry so we have an environmentally responsible end-of-life strategy.
Solar panels are just the latest product that does not have a sensible sustainable disposal program. Paint, floor coverings and commercial furniture all end up on tips and in transfer stations across Australia. The Australian Council of Recycling chief executive has attributed delays in product stewardship to both bureaucratic malaise and unfounded concern about cost.
The Australian television and computer industry faced a similar slow start, but since 2011 a national TV and computer recycling scheme has required manufacturers and importers to participate in industry-funded collection and recycling. Victoria will ban electronic waste in landfill from July this year, including all parts of a photovoltaic system, mirroring schemes already operating in Europe. Victoria is also leading a project examining end-of-life management options for photovoltaic systems which might be able to be adopted nationally.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video