Waste Overview
Western Australia
In WA, matters relating to waste and recycling fall under the power of the Honourable Donna Faragher, Minister for Environment; Youth.
Operational functions relating to the protection of the environment are split between the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Department of Environment and Conservation (DEC).
Current Trends
Landfill space is becoming harder to find and markets for recycled materials becoming more well-established. The costs of sending waste to landfill have been steadily rising and this is set to continue.
Although there is still a charge for collecting recycling, this is mostly just to cover the labour, transport and sorting (but without landfill gate fees). Recycling is generally much cheaper than waste and likely to become even more so. For some recyclables, you may even be able to get a rebate for your material (e.g. cardboard in bales or waste cooking oil).
WARR Act and Waste Authority
WARR Act
In Western Australia, general waste management and recycling is governed under the Waste Avoidance and Resource Recovery Act (WARR Act) 2007 which came into effect on 1st July 2008.
For waste originating in the Perth Metropolitan area, all landfills must pay a levy on waste deposited at their site.
The charging of levies is covered by the Waste Avoidance and Resource Recovery Levy Act 2007 which came into effect on 1st July 2008.
Waste Authority
In Western Australia, the WARR Act provides for the formation of a statutory body: the Waste Authority (ZeroWasteWA). With the formation of the Waste Authority, the old ‘Waste Management Board’ no longer exists.
The Waste Authority is in place to provide advice to the Minister for Environment, to provide strategic direction to waste and recycling for the State and to ensure that the landfill levy is spent appropriately on recycling, composting and waste minimisation projects for Western Australia.
Climate Change and Waste
Under the Federal Government’s proposed Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme, the key impact for the waste industry will be the need for landfill sites (emitting over 25,000 tonnes of CO2-equivalent (as methane, CH4) will be required to purchase tradeable permits to cover their emissions from the site, probably from 2010, when emissions trading is set to commence. The exact design of the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme is not yet finalised; more will be known at the end of 2008 when the White Paper is released.
For more information on the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (an emissions trading or ‘cap and trade’ scheme) and the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting System, check out the Department of Climate Change website.
Encycle Consulting submitted a response to the consultation on the Green Paper for the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme that discusses the impact of the proposed scheme for landfills and particularly for Local Government.
What about “carbon credits” for recycling?
Under the current Australian emissions trading scheme design, recycling does not qualify for any form of “carbon credits” or tradable permits. Why not? This is because, whilst recycling is often relatively energy efficient, the actual energy savings are not realised during the recycling process but simply from the fact that mining, smelting and other high-energy activities to extract ‘virgin’ raw materials are avoided.
It is hoped that as the emissions trading scheme develops, the costs of producing goods from more energy intensive ‘raw’ materials will increase, so improving the market for recycled materials.
Green Buildings and voluntary rating tools – the waste component
There are two main national rating tools for assessing sustainability aspects of buildings:
- Green Star (Green Building Council of Australia)
- NABERS (National Australian Built Environment Rating Scheme)
There are a suite of Green Star tools that mainly to the design of a range of building types, including commercial offices, retail centres, mixed-use, healthcare, education, multi-unit residential and industrial. There are at least two credit points in each tool relating to waste management and recycling. In most tools these usually relate to adequate storage space for recycling and construction phase waste management plans and recycling targets. Some tools also require a waste management plan for the operational phase.
The National Australian Built Environment Rating Scheme consists of tools for commercial offices, homes and hotels. There are rating tools for energy, water, indoor environment and waste (offices only). The rating tools are performance-based and therefore relate only to the operational phase of a building.
A summary of the waste requirements for each tool is available here.
For more information about these rating tools, check out:
Australian Packaging Covenant
The second Australian Packaging Covenant is a voluntary scheme that applies to brand owners of products. It is supported by industry and all spheres of government and is designed to reduce the environmental impact of packaging.
Signatories (brand owners, industry associations, local, state and federal governments) to the Covenant are required to submit an action plan and report annually on steps taken to minimise packaging and ensure post-consumer packaging is recovered.
There are national targets to be met and monitoring systems are in place to measure the performance of the Covenant. A National Environment Protection Measure (NEPM) For Used Packaging Materials is in place to capture ‘free-riders’ and to not disadvantage those signatories who comply with the Covenant’s requirements. This is implemented at a state and territory level and in Western Australia the Environmental Protection (NEPM-UPM) Regulations 2007 have been enacted.
For more details about the Covenant and the WA Regulations, check out: