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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 5 Hansard (9 May) . . Page.. 1305 ..

MR SMYTH (continuing):

there is an need to integrate efforts taken in the ACT with regional and national efforts.

Mr Temporary Deputy Speaker, over the last 12 months my department has further developed an action plan designed to reinvigorate elements of the strategy. These actions are consistent with the recommendations made in the Commissioner for the Environment's review and can broadly be described as follows:

setting targets for the reduction of specific waste streams and identifying and assessing factors inhibiting the reuse and recycling of the priority waste streams;

the augmentation of education and community programs to better inform, encourage and engender community commitment to achieving the goal of no waste;

creating an example of best practice waste management within the government to initiate a whole of government approach to the strategy and to better articulate the social benefits of it to the wider community;

set waste pricing at levels that provide incentives to reuse and recycle;

consolidation of the infrastructure action plan and the development of emerging technologies associated with the collection, separation and treatment of waste;

the development of markets for recycled materials to provide waste generators with alternatives to landfill disposal and to recover the true value of the resources;

refine established waste and recycling collection systems and to conduct trials to improve the collection of resources;

targeting building and demolition waste through the implementation of the development control code for best practice waste management in the ACT and the possible establishment of a mixed builders' waste recovery centre;

participating in the national packaging covenant and assessing the requirements for waste management regulations;

identifying the application of future waste management technologies in the ACT and the ongoing monitoring of emerging waste reduction techniques.

These steps are designed to provide an inspirational example to galvanise industry and community on the merits of no waste and to further guide the ACT towards becoming the first waste-free society in the world. The goal of the no waste by 2010 strategy is a waste-free society and an indicator of the success of the strategy will be no waste going to landfill by the year 2010. It is planned to clarify and publicise the strategy goal through the community education programs to support the further implementation of the strategy.

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