Page 3260 - Week 09 - Tuesday, 18 August 2009
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This work is ongoing by my department, and I look forward to providing advice to the Assembly soon on how we can use waste-to-energy technologies to deal with some of our challenges not only in terms of waste but also in terms of renewable energy sources.
I would also like to mention that the government is engaged in national approaches to waste management. I represent the territory on the Environment Protection and Heritage Council, which is the council of environment ministers from around Australia that meets regularly. As a member of that council, we are seeing the development of a national waste policy which will set the strategic direction for waste management in Australia to the year 2020.
The national waste policy will set out the respective roles of each level of government and the basis for collaboration between states and territories. As such, it is an important policy process that will be integrated as a development of our own future waste strategy in the ACT.
The national waste policy will encourage Australians to manage waste as a resource for better environmental, economic and social outcomes and will complement the ACT’s own waste strategy by encouraging industry stewardship whereby manufacturers take greater responsibility for the recovering of resources once their products have been utilised; drive innovation in waste minimisation, particularly through packaging; dispose of necessary waste in a safe and environmentally sound manner; and better educate consumers on the environmental consequences of their consumption choices.
The national policy will also identify approaches for handling organic, electronic and hazardous wastes and encourage broader benefits from managing waste, including climate change and sustainability. It is worth highlighting that on the weekend we had the very successful, free e-waste drop off program at a number of outlets around the ACT and Canberrans responded very positively to that initiative which was organised by ACT No Waste and supported and funded by Apple Computers. That activity on the weekend is really a precursor of what is going to become a national e-waste scheme.
The Environment, Protection and Heritage Council, environment ministers from around the country, have agreed that we are going to have a national e-waste recovery scheme which will be funded through a small levy on the cost of the purchase of electronic devices. That small levy, that small increase in the total cost of electronic devices, will be used to pay for the recovery of those devices at the end of their life.
The scheme will be supported and funded by the manufacturers, the people who make these products. That funding will be transferred through to private organisations, to non-government organisations or, indeed, to local and, in this case, territory government, potentially to run the government e-waste recycling scheme. That sort of measure is what is needed to deal with some of these more difficult waste types such as e-waste, and I am pleased to say that this work is well progressed. Environment ministers have given it their support and it is now moving forward with detailed implementation policies.
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