The nation’s environment ministers have agreed to a new National Waste Policy that “sets the agenda for waste and resource recovery in Australia over the next 10 years”. The historic agreement took place in Perth at the biannual meeting of the Environment Protection and Heritage Council, with consensus also reached on a landmark product stewardship legislative framework, which will initially be applied to televisions and computers.

The National Waste Policy(NWP) has been developed in record time, based on evidence obtained from a nine-month public consultation process. The EPHC Communiqué said choice modeling had shown waste and resource recovery are matters of community concern, and many governments have been pursuing a range of innovative strategies and approaches.

“Many industries also have taken the initiative in promoting whole-of-life-cycle planning for their products. Through the National Waste Policy, ministers seek to enhance, build on and complement these policies and actions at all levels of government and the community,” it states.

The aims of the NWP are to avoid the generation of waste; reduce the amount of waste (including hazardous waste) for disposal; manage waste as a resource and ensure waste treatment, disposal, recovery and reuse is undertaken in a safe, scientific and environmentally sound manner; and contribute to the reduction in greenhouse emissions.

It sets directions in six key areas: taking responsibility, improving the market, pursuing sustainability, reducing hazard and risk, tailoring solutions, and providing the evidence.

“Activities under the 16 strategies will include: work to remove market impediments to the development of effective markets for waste and recovered resources, improve certainty, reduce costs for governments and business and facilitate investment.

“Strategies will be developed for organic waste that complement the Australian Government’s climate change and sustainability agendas; options for enhancing the capacity of regional and remote communities to more effectively manage their waste and realise local recycling initiatives are another important part of the work program. Efforts will continue to reduce the potentially hazardous content of waste, and ensure that these wastes are recovered, handled and disposed of safely.”

The ministers are also pointed out that improved waste information will lead to better planning and evidence based decision making, and agreed to release a National Waste Overview and publish a National Waste Report by the end of this year.

There is a strong focus in the NWP on moving away from end-of-pipe activities and taking responsibility through the entire manufacturing chain. Ministers have agreed to a product stewardship framework that will include the provision for the Commonwealth to support industry-run recycling schemes, where a net community benefit for intervention has been established, through legislation that prevents `free-riding’ on the voluntary efforts of responsible companies.

“Following extensive industry and public consultation, and a regulation impact statement that established there is a significant net community benefit from government intervention, ministers also announced that televisions and computers would be the first products to be covered by the new national product stewardship legislative framework.

“The product stewardship framework will also provide support through voluntary accreditation of community and industry run recycling schemes. The lighting industry and key stakeholders are working with government to increase the recycling of mercury containing lights and, in partnership with governments, the tyre industry is also developing a scheme to increase recycling in Australia of used tyres.”

Ministers also supported the strengthened Australian Packaging Covenant to replace the National Packaging Covenant, which is due to expire on 30 June 2010. The updated covenant has a greater focus on package design, workplace recycling, public recycling, and litter reduction projects.

With a flood of reaction to today’s meeting swamping the Inside Waste email system, Environment Victoria was the first to applaud the decision to introduce a national television and computer recycling scheme, which will make manufacturers responsible for the collection of old equipment. They will be required to meet a recycling target of 80% by 2021.

“The good thing about this EPR scheme is that it can easily be expanded,” said Fraser Brindley. “Australia has the opportunity to create thousands of new jobs in the recycling industry by dealing with the growing problem of e-waste. This is good for jobs and the environment.”

Indeed today’s EPHC meeting has been roundly welcomed by green groups – a somewhat unusual occurrence. Dave West from the Boomerang Alliance of green groups and councils was brimming with praise for the political leadership shown by Federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett.

“We’re absolutely rapt with [Garrett’s] efforts on this one – we’d have nothing going forward if it wasn’t for the ministerial intervention,” he said.

The upbeat assessment is backed up by veteran campaigner Jeff Angel, the head of the Total Environment Centre and a man more often heard rattling off sharp criticisms than sweeping compliments: “in the last six months, Minister Garrett’s made a 100% difference.”

Mike Ritchie, president of the Waste Management Association’s NSW branch, said “today’s decisions by the EPHC are strongly welcomed by the waste industry generally".

“For years the industry has called for leadership by Federal and State governments on waste and recycling issues. We see with today’s EPHC decision that TV’s, computers and tyres will get the attention they deserve.

“The next step is for the EPHC, through the National Waste Strategy, to develop real incentives to reduce organic waste to landfill, to provide better commercial incentives for recycling and to improve the finances for methane gas capture from landfills.

“We must focus on the big ticket items in the waste space which are organics to landfill and the contribution of recycling to reducing Australia’s greenhouse emissions.

“Today is the first step in a journey and all Environment Ministers, but particularly Peter Garrett, are to be congratulated.”


This article was first published on Thursday November 5 as the EPHC communiqué and National Waste Policy were released. For industry reaction, see follow up article here .

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