Page 267 - Week 01 - Wednesday, 15 February 2012
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(h) that the Government’s current Waste Management Strategy includes a residual waste Materials Recovery Facility (also known as a dirty MRF), despite it being known that the flow of toxic and hazardous waste to landfill means that any organic waste collected cannot be used for high quality compost and has little market value; and
(i) that a new contract for ACT waste vehicles is due to be negotiated in the middle of this year; and
(2) calls on the Government to:
(a) commence an education program along the lines indicated in the Hyder report;
(b) not commit any funds to a residual waste MRF at this stage;
(c) ensure that any contract entered into for rubbish removal this year is compatible with an organic waste collection scheme; and
(d) consider an organics collection bin if there has not been a significant reduction in organic waste to landfill as a result of the education program.
I put forward this motion today on the issues of waste management in the ACT because I believe we are at a pivotal point in determining how we should manage our waste in the ACT. The government launched its waste strategy in December and this strategy continues to ignore the benefits of reducing our waste production overall and increasing source separation of our waste streams, including organic waste collection.
However, there are as yet no funds appropriated to any of the items in the waste strategy, so the Greens believe that now is the time to ensure that any investments in waste management infrastructure are consistent with the long-term needs of the ACT. The Assembly—particularly the Greens but also some members of the Liberal and Labor parties—has had a keen interest in waste issues and I believe that the Assembly should have a role in determining what sort of infrastructure we invest in.
As part of the Greens-ALP agreement, in the last few years the government has taken small steps in waste reduction by banning plastic bags and on source separation by rolling out recycling bins in Civic. We now await recycling bins in other town centres. More importantly, we would like to see waste separation expanded and encouraged at both home and work.
I will give some statistics at the beginning of my speech. The ACT produced over 800,000 tonnes of waste in 2009-10. That is 2½ tonnes per ACT resident, which makes it the second highest per capita rate in Australia, after WA. On average, 40 to 50 per cent of household waste is organic matter and 10 to 20 per cent of commercial waste is organic. The level of waste per capita is continuing to grow and the Mugga Lane landfill site is expected to be full by 2050. And as land gets scarcer in the ACT, we simply cannot continue to expand our landfill sites forever. It is difficult and expensive.
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