Page 535 - Week 04 - Thursday, 29 June 1989
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numerous and significant. In addition, waste production is the source of a problem which imposes an increasingly heavy financial burden on the community as we strive to dispose of our wastes in an environmentally and socially acceptable manner.
Domestic waste contains up to 60 per cent of recyclable material. New technologies allow these materials to be recycled into useable products. Waste oil can be reprocessed to produce a product equivalent to the original. Plastics can now be reprocessed to produce products which replace timber in certain applications. Paper and cardboard products are recycled to produce products of acceptable quality.
These all reduce the demands and pressure on natural resources and the environment. We can no longer afford to be carefree about our packaged, takeaway and throwaway lifestyles. This Government has a primary concern in keeping down its rates and charges faced by ACT residents. We must ensure that we develop strategies which are environmentally safe at a cost that we and our children can afford. I look forward to participating in this inquiry.
MR STEFANIAK (11.24): Like other members, I rise to support this initiative to refer this matter to the standing committee. At last figures I think the population of the ACT had risen to some 297,000 and I understand the ACT can withstand and sustain a population of some half a million. We are still one of the fastest growing areas in the country, and that raises a number of problems which I believe this inquiry will address.
One problem which has been alluded to by several speakers so far is the problem of landfill and the fact that we do have two dumps operating in Canberra at present. We only have a number of finite sites within the Territory. Having been a user of the dump in Mugga Lane, I have seen the area there expand and expand and wonder just how much longer that dump can be used. There are real problems there which will continue to grow with the increase in the Canberra population.
A member: It is projected for seven years.
MR STEFANIAK: Yes, I understand that there are about another seven years left there. So this is a real problem, it is a pressing problem, and it will grow in the future as Canberra's population continues to grow.
There are a couple of other points I wish to raise, Mr Speaker, and one is in relation to big bins. I am pleased to see that my first question on notice has now been taken off, and I assume that is obviously because that is one of the questions that is going to be dealt with in this inquiry. Indeed, our policy during the election campaign was to provide as an option for householders large bins after a cost-effective recycling system has been
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