Page 2318 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 29 August 2007
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aluminium and steel cans, glass and juice containers and mixed plastics. At the reusables facilities at Mugga and Mitchell reusable and repairable items can be deposited free of charge. This service also includes a household on-call, fee for service, bulky goods pick-up service. Incidentally, we now have two reusable facilities at Mugga—Aussie Junk and Revolve—so let there be an end to discussion about those two facilities.
Other initiatives include the establishment of a network of construction and demolition waste recycling facilities—there is no mention in Dr Foskey’s motion about that—and the development of an active and growing market-based resource recovery sector that is not only diverting waste from landfill but also generating jobs and creating positive economic benefits for the Canberra community.
As the no waste strategy action plan 2003-2007 is coming to an end a review has commenced to examine no waste achievements and progress to date. In addition, the review will examine opportunities for further waste minimisation, options for moving forward to create sustainable waste minimisation and management practices, and recommend a forward no waste action plan for 2008-2011. I repeat: The review will recommend a forward no waste action plan for 2008-2011, which is a recommitment to the aspiration of no waste.
Dr Foskey called on the government to undertake a number of initiatives to progress waste minimisation in the ACT, and I would like to address them individually. The first paragraph of her motion reads:
(1) re-commit the target and timeline of the No Waste by 2010 strategy.
Firstly, I would like to clarify that we have a no waste strategy which sets out the government’s program for waste minimisation. This strategy has been progressively improved and has been subject to formal review and evaluation. The outcomes have then been used to develop the next three-year action plan to drive further progress towards our no waste objective.
Secondly, we have a no waste by 2010 aspirational target that was established as a mechanism to drive ambitious community change in the ACT. Again I would like to make a point of clarification. This no waste target does not mean zero waste going to landfill. Long ago we established a benchmark that in practice no waste can at best be 95 per cent resource recovery with a five per cent residual of non-recyclable materials still requiring landfill. By way of example, that may very well be toxic substances such as asbestos as it is discovered in homes and needs to go to landfill. The second paragraph of Dr Foskey’s motion reads:
(2) develop targets by the end of 2007 to close recycling loops, and reduce the net reduction of waste.
Closing recycling loops or, to be more specific, implementing resource recovery programs that divert materials from landfill then sort and process those materials into usable products, that value add to materials where possible, and that develop sustainable markets for waste material, has always been a central theme of the no waste strategy. We are literally turning waste into resources, which is what our current action plan is entitled.
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