Page 2211 - Week 06 - Friday, 27 June 2008
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What is of concern is the government’s seeming lack of concern about this, in combination with a slow response. For example, a trial of recycling bins has been going on in Glebe Park since February 2006. Why does it need more than two years to establish whether or not this is a successful initiative? Why not say, “We have got recycling in Glebe Park; it is great so we are going to roll it out”? It works there and we know that at every multicultural festival the recycling bins go into Civic. I have been in Third World cities in Brazil and on every street there were three bins. If there was one bin, there were three. There was a green waste bin, a recycling bin and a landfill bin. If they can do it where many of the population are not even literate, they could do it in Canberra, which has the highest levels of education in Australia. I hope that the minister or one of his staff reads the transcript, given that he did not hear a word I just said.
We hear that there is a review of the no waste by 2010 strategy. I am hoping we will see that before the election. This is one of those things that really mattered. I was one of the Canberra citizens who went to those consultations back in the early nineties. We felt that we had a pretty damn good strategy. Now 2010 is coming up and—by goodness!—we hear from Mr Hargreaves that no waste actually meant 20 per cent waste to landfill.
Mr Hargreaves: No, I did not.
DR FOSKEY: He may have said five per cent. At the moment 25 per cent is going to landfill. We want to see a ratcheting up. We will not quibble about the figures, Mr Hargreaves. No waste means zero. It does not sound quite as good to say five per cent waste to landfill, but if that is what it is, let us be honest about it.
We can only hope that, given our growing population and the no waste strategy targets being on a per capita basis, the review will recommend measures to improve things faster and better. The community is calling for organic waste bins—a third bin. The government needs to be creative here. It does not necessarily have to run a collection service for these bins. Perhaps they could provide a subsidy for garden compost bins or worm farms. They should also assist multi-residential unit building to develop their own composting system and encourage green waste entrepreneurs to work with multi-residential flats. We all know that it all goes in together in those kitchens. It is just waste and it putrefies our landfill, and that is part of the problem.
Anyway, I am a little concerned that Mr Hargreaves has said the no waste review will be going to cabinet. This is a worry. We have seen time and time again how often documents go to cabinet and either they do not come out or, when they do, are very different from the way they go in. The minister himself has pointed to the retail and commercial sectors as the biggest challenge to waste minimisation. I do not think an awards process is enough here. We need the government to make it easier. Maybe it is time to introduce a centralised recycling system that is available to the commercial sector. Maybe it is time to introduce regulations which prevent the commercial sector from not separating out their waste. This is a big area and such initiatives would make a big impact on Canberra’s waste stream.
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