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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2002 Week 8 Hansard (26 June) . . Page.. 2223 ..

MS MacDONALD (continuing):

On 1 June this year, we organised another free composting and worm farming trial. I attended that, along with approximately 20 others. That was a fairly successful rate. It shows the interest of the residents of Chifley in reducing the amount of waste that goes into landfill and in the offering of a service which provides for composting.

One of the successes of the bio-bin trial is that it has raised the awareness of residents of Chifley. A number of residents have now moved to having trash packs, as well as doing composting and worm farming, to reduce the amount of waste to go into landfill.

People should be aware that not all trash packs are recycled or composted. They should be aware that they need to find out whether their trash pack provider is making sure that the contents of the trash pack are being recycled, where appropriate.

Mr Speaker, I commend ACT No Waste for this and other initiatives in trying to achieve our target of having no waste by the year 2010. Of course, other initiatives have taken place. Second-hand Sunday has been immensely popular with certain people within the ACT. I understand there has been a trial within Belconnen shops, to try to get recyclables separated from the normal garbage, so that those are sent off for recycling.

In yesterday's budget, there was an announcement of an increase in tip fees. This is also part of the strategy to encourage people to recycle where possible, rather than just dumping all their refuse at the tip. Some people might ask, "How does an increase in tip fees benefit me?"

A comparison can be done of tip fees in Canberra to tip fees in places like Sydney or Melbourne. The tip fee here in Canberra is presently $33 per tonne and will be going up to $44 per tonne. However, if you compare that to Chullora in New South Wales, the tip fee is $93.60 per tonne. Forty-four dollars is still less than half of what is being charged in a Sydney suburb. If you look at Seven Hills, it is $92.50 per tonne and, at Lucas Heights, it is $76.90 per tonne, which is not quite double the Canberra amount.

Looking at other areas of a similar size, in Wollongong it is $51.20 per tonne and in Newcastle it is $65 per tonne. There are examples in Victoria. Bairnsdale Council is at the same rate of $44 per tonne and Manningham Council is $60 per tonne-again more than we pay.

Brimbank Council is mentioned, which charges less than we are about to charge, but more than what we currently charge-$36 per tonne. We are looking towards increasing the charges because it has been found that, with the amount of waste being dumped into landfill, we are paying approximately double what people are paying us to get rid of the waste.

A flyer is being put together, in which people will be encouraged to look at sorting out what they are dumping. We are aiming mainly at commercial operators. It is not really the small householders, who bring their waste in of a weekend in the back to their cars, that we are aiming at. That will be based on whether they have a small, medium or large load in the back of their vehicle. It will cost $6, $12 or $18, depending on the size of the load.

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