Page 3373 - Week 09 - Wednesday, 20 August 2008

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(b) purchase goods made of recycled materials wherever possible;

(d) develop and implement a plan for green and organic waste, including a green waste kerbside collection service, and an onsite organic waste recycling scheme in new suburbs;

(e) develop a “zero waste” education facility;

(f) include waste as a separate identifiable component of domestic and business rates;

(g) institute a regular collection of large households items to promote reuse;

(h) establish a tyre recycling facility in the ACT and marketing of its end products; and

(i) develop and implement reduction strategies for hazardous waste, including:

(i) increasing fines for illegally dumping chemicals and other wastes in wastewater and stormwater systems, with more trained inspectors; and

(ii) instituting a regular collection of toxic chemicals and other items, including batteries, from households and farms, with a complementary education campaign.

Mr Speaker, you can imagine how pleased I was to see the attention that the Commissioner for the Environment gave to waste in her State of the environment report. We have not yet seen a response from the government to this report and I am very much hoping that we do see a response to the commissioner’s report before the election.

There were some very alarming figures in the report. In Canberra the use of most resources has increased. This is hardly surprising given how much higher our average disposable income is compared with the national average. On average, each of us, that is, per capita, spends about $1,475 on unused items each year. We have that much to waste, mostly on food. Although our population growth over the past 13 years was around 10 per cent, our total waste has increased by 87 per cent during this time.

There is no data on the total electronic waste generated in the ACT, but it is estimated that its growth is three times higher than other waste. At present the only real systems to deal with e-waste, as we now call it, are being run by non-government organisations—the Canberra Environment Centre and Charity Computers. Hopefully this is about to change.

The commissioner has put forward some concrete proposals, which I hope the government prioritises, because e-waste, of which we are great producers, is far more

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