Page 631 - Week 02 - Thursday, 6 March 2008
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
Public Place Names Act—Public Place Names (Franklin) Determination 2008 (No 2)—Disallowable Instrument DI2008-17 (LR, 7 February 2008).
Road Transport (General) Act—Road Transport (General) (Application of Road Transport Legislation) Declaration 2008 (No 2)—Disallowable Instrument DI2008-12 (LR, 7 February 2008).
University of Canberra Act—University of Canberra (Honorary Degree) Statute 2008—Disallowable Instrument DI2008-18 (LR, 7 February 2008).
Petitions—Out of order
Petitions which do not conform with the standing orders (4)—
ACT Housing—Disturbing behaviour of specific tenants—Mrs Burke (25, 14, 11 and 19 signatures).
Supplementary answer to question without notice
Environment—green waste programs
MR HARGREAVES: Mr Speaker, on 5 March 2008 Dr Foskey asked for an estimate of the proportion of green waste going to landfill and whether I considered this a concern. For the information of members I provide the following advice. The ACT is achieving resource recovery levels for garden waste above most jurisdictions across Australia and at very affordable rates. In the ACT over 220,000 tonnes of garden waste are being recycled into a range of mulches, composts and soil products that are onsold into sustainable markets. The ACT operates two free garden waste drop-off facilities where all residents and businesses can drop off garden waste for recycling. While no up-to-date data on actual green waste quantities being land filled is available, it is estimated that fewer than 20,000 tonnes of garden waste are being disposed of to landfill.
Recent audits on the household kerbside bin system show that approximately three per cent of household rubbish presented to the kerbside contains garden waste. The ACT community has historically had low levels of garden waste presented in kerbside bins as a result of practices that developed in the community when 55-litre hand bins were used with a truck and runners to collect bins. The smaller bin meant that garden waste was not able to be placed in that receptacle, so residents got used to self-hauling garden waste to waste facilities. With the introduction of free garden waste recycling centres, garden waste diversion escalated to around a 90 per cent resource recovery level.
The trash pack industry also sprung up at this time to provide residents who were unable to self-haul their garden waste with a cheap and accessible service for garden waste collection. Having the trash pack industry providing green waste collection services to only those that want them means that the bulk of residents who self-haul their garden waste are not unnecessarily funding kerbside collection bins that are not utilised.
The introduction of a third garden-waste-only collection bin has not been pursued for a range of reasons, including the already high rate of garden waste recycling being
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .