The National Waste Policy agreed to at last week’s EPHC meeting of environment ministers in Perth sparked a mixed reaction from industry circles. Players involved in e-waste were quick to heap praise on the document as it was handed down, although with a few days to digest the policy other camps came back with more critical appraisals. Recyclers even went so far to call it “weak as piss”.

Australian Landfill Owners Association spokesperson Max Spedding said he is “quite pleased” about the policy approach adopted in the EPCH communiqué, and “especially the commitment to return to evaluation based on sustainable environmental benefit and science”.

“ALOA hopes this will avoid landfill avoidance being the starting point for future planning and [recognise] the potential for landfills, with high gas capture, to be considered as an EfW (energy from waste) alternative.”

National WMAA president, Ron Wainberg, was also measured in his initial reaction. He said the product stewardship outcomes “are very welcome” and addressing TVs and computers will hopefully lead to the establishment of mechanisms for all WEEE (waste electrical and electronic equipment) “in short order”.

“As always, the devil will be in the detail,” said Wainberg. “The [NWP] provides a sound platform, but the detailed action plan will be the next important milestone which will really point to the outcomes which may be expected, and I'm confident industry will work with government in developing this plan.”

“I'm disappointed that progress on the issue of data appears to be slow - I don't believe our understanding of the issues involved are so poorly developed that we need to undertake a scoping exercise for data collection over the next five years.

“Ironically, without good data, the true impact of the PS schemes can't be fully quantified.”

WMAA’s national VP and president of the NSW branch, Mike Ritchie, was also quick to point out last week’s progress is only “the first step in a journey,” saying the next step is “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,” said Ritchie.

Rod Welford, a former Queensland environment minister who now heads the Australian Council of Recyclers, was the most critical in his response to the EPHC outcomes. His early reaction was to label them “weak as piss,” and claim the NWP will “leave Australia’s recycling effort lagging well behind the rest of the world and make little contribution towards a sustainable industry”.

He said the policy “trumpeted” by the Federal Government contained “little innovation and a snail’s-pace timetable”, and is “a major disappointment for the Australian recycling industry”.

“The Government has not yet listened and the policy has all indications of an outdated ‘waste’ focussed approach that will do little to boost recycling in Australia or build the industry.

“The 2021 time span for the ‘e-waste strategy’ for TV’s and computers is well behind world’s best practice and will see many thousands of these hazardous products dumped into landfills in the next few years as consumers replace analogue sets with digital.

“I can understand that some might welcome this on the basis that ‘anything is better than nothing’ but no-one should be fooled by the poor overall outcome of this new policy.

“And after so much talk for so long, there is no solution to the mountain of tyres left unrecovered or recycled; and no impetus for action on other critical issues such as gas bottles and fluorescent lights.

“It’s not just about supporting our $12 billion recycling industry, potentially one of Australia’s biggest industries, but creating significant social and economic benefits for our country. There is potential for thousands of new ‘green’ jobs along with the environmental benefits.”

Welford claims the Commonwealth still has a “1990s view of recycling as merely a waste management issue, rather than a major issue for national economic efficiency”.

“This is a missed opportunity - wide-scale recycling in commerce and industry has great potential to achieve radical savings of wasted materials, contribute strongly to the reduction of carbon emissions, and create an explosion of green job opportunities,” he said.

“Australia needs a new national culture where efficient resource use and recycling deliver a dramatic reduction in the 20 million tonnes of valuable resources thrown away into landfills every year.

“Australia needs a forward-thinking approach which focuses on front-end resource efficiency and recycling of materials, not just half-hearted measures to divert waste from landfill.”

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