Background

The No Waste by 2010, Waste Management Strategy for Canberra was released in December 1996. Developing and adopting the No Waste by 2010 strategy was a measured initiative based on evidence that it was wanted and backed by broad community support. The ACT was the first Government in the world to set a goal of No Waste. Since the implementation of the Strategy there has been considerable interest in the No Waste goal on both a national and international level.

The No Waste by 2010 Strategy focuses on a broad range of initiatives including the promotion of best practice in environmentally responsible waste management. The goal of the No Waste by 2010 Strategy is a waste free society. An indicator of the success of the strategy will be no waste going to landfill by the year 2010.

In 1999, the ACT Commissioner for the Environment undertook a review of the No Waste by 2010 Strategy. Based on the findings of the review, the Commissioner for the Environment completed a report titled 'Progress towards No Waste By 2010', making recommendations to further implement the strategy. Implementation of the No Waste Strategy, over the last three years, has been progressed through a series of programs detailed in The Next Step in the No Waste Strategy.

The current ACT Government platform includes a section on Sustainability and the Environment. This policy envisages the goals of a sustainable ACT community as continual improvement of individual, community and economic wellbeing, equity within and between generations, and environmental responsibility. Under this platform the Government is committed to a comprehensive and integrated approach to economic, social and environmental planning in order to achieve sustainable development."

Context

The Commissioner for the Environment recommended that the No Waste Strategy be updated to identify action plans to 2010. The Commissioner further recommended that at least two reviews of the progress of the strategy be conducted between 2000 and 2008.

The Next Step document details a series of programs to implement the No Waste Strategy between 2000 and 2002. The Next Step commits to formal reviews of the No Waste Strategy and the Next Step programs during 2002 and 2006. The implementation of programs for the Strategy will be reviewed at these times and new targets and priorities set for the following years. At each review a new series of programs will be developed based on the priority waste streams at that time. The first review is due in 2002 to develop programs for implementation during 2003 - 2006.

In January 2001, RPM Pty Ltd, completed a study on the cost of waste disposal in the ACT. Their report The Actual Costs of Waste Disposal in the ACT details the economic, social and environmental costs of disposing waste to landfill. The report has been used to develop a waste pricing strategy for the ACT that moves towards setting disposal charges to cover the true costs of disposal.