Page 2461 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 31 July 2019
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In the 2019-20 financial year, as the budget shows, our economy is growing strongly, and this is an opportunity to further grow our economic potential. We are creating more jobs for Canberrans through attracting and supporting investment, helping local businesses become export market ready and further developing key industry sectors, including our waste management and resource recovery sector.
Modelling by Access Economics on waste recycling employment suggests that a total of 593 people were directly employed in the recycling industry in the ACT, compared to 63 people on landfill activities. A further 498 people were indirectly employed in recycling, compared to 53 people indirectly employed on landfill activities. The modelling shows that for every 10,000 tonnes of waste that is recycled 9.2 jobs are created, compared to just 2.8 jobs if the same amount of waste was sent to landfill. Recycling clearly has better outcomes in terms of jobs creation.
The government is seeking to support and grow employment in the circular economy through a number of initiatives. For example, the materials recovery facility at Hume is the primary destination for the ACT’s recycled goods and provides employment for 38 people. The Green Shed is another employer in the re-usables space, effectively keeping saleable items out of landfill. Since its inception the enterprise has created 70 jobs, sold close to 64 million items and saved almost 60,000 tonnes from going into landfill.
The ACT is also supporting the Soft Landing mattress recycling centre at the Hume materials recovery precinct, providing a shed space in proximity to the Mugga Lane Resource Management Centre. It is a social enterprise offering real job opportunities for people who experience barriers to employment in the open labour market and currently employs 17 people breaking down mattresses into their component parts so that they can then be recycled.
There are also over 50 truck drivers providing the territory’s essential domestic waste and recycling collection services across the ACT. Best practice waste management has also supported employment growth internationally. We have seen recycling rates in the European Union increase significantly since the mid-1990s, and that has translated into employment growth in the recycling sector there. The overall employment related to the recycling of materials in European countries increased by 45 per cent from 2000 to 2007.
This works in terms of providing jobs, and, more importantly, the research shows that recycling can create jobs at higher income levels than landfilling or incinerating waste. Specifically, recycling a tonne of waste will pay $US101 more in salaries and wages than disposing of it in landfill. This is being demonstrated in other jurisdictions and locally and is something we need to build on. I commend Ms Orr’s motion to the Assembly.
MS LAWDER (Brindabella) (10.26): I thank Ms Orr for bringing this motion to the Assembly. Waste and recycling is an issue that I am particularly interested in, both as shadow minister for urban services, which includes waste collection and recycling, and also as acting shadow minister for the environment while my colleague Ms Lee is
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