Page 540 - Week 04 - Thursday, 29 June 1989
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it is important that the work of those who are drafting that Bill should go unhindered. I understand that the work on the legislation is virtually complete and will come up for consideration in this chamber shortly.
A sharps hotline has been established to encourage the safe disposal of syringes found throughout the city. That has been a growing problem, and of course that is a very important feature of safe disposal of those somewhat dangerous articles. A survey of all potential clinical waste sources has also been completed, and the report of a consultant engaged to propose management strategies is being examined.
One only has to visit the ACT tips to come to the conclusion that there is a huge amount of material dumped and buried there which might be recycled if the proper arrangements were in place. One notes that there is a growth in packaging which is currently difficult to recycle because of the expense of any procedures or because it might contain environmentally hazardous material such as CFCs which might be found in fast food containers and other plastic coated paper wrappings. They are difficult materials to recycle, and in my view the committee should look at procedures which might prevent the use of those sorts of materials in order that appropriate recycling measures can be implemented.
Halons, which were mentioned earlier, are a major cause of concern because of their pollution of the environment and the damage to the ozone layer. Mr Duby rightly mentioned that halons when used as a fire extinguishing agent are a particular problem, and there is much of it about in many buildings in the ACT. Because it was a fire extinguishing agent, it was treated as a sacred cow by industry and by the community because of the use that it might be put to in an emergency. But I think it is now time for all of us, and particularly the committee, to consider appropriate means of storage and disposal, and even recycling, of that dangerous product. The handling systems that would be required for recycling have been developed overseas and continue to be developed. All these things should be looked at by the committee.
The issue of waste basically seems to boil down to whether there is a profit in recycling it in a real dollar sense. From a domestic point of view, on the one hand household waste is disposed of for health reasons, and on the other hand for convenience and tidiness around the house whereas with commercial waste, because of the economies of scale, there is more opportunity to recycle the waste at some sort of a profit. I think when it comes down to considering this matter the committee will have to consider the cost which the community might be prepared to meet for the recycling issue. Some years ago I had the opportunity to visit a tip in the Philippines when I was on a trade union delegation to that country.
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