The NSW Government has in effect jettisoned “justifiable demand” as the core criteria for new landfills in the Sydney basin. Instead the new criteria shift the emphasis towards increased waste recovery, including whether waste bound for a new landfill has first been minimised through some kind of resource recovery.

Planning Minister Tony Kelly said the Infrastructure State Environmental Planning Policy (SEPP) struck in 2007 had been amended to ensure issues such as waste minimisation, best practice design and site location are considered when development applications are determined.

“The new criteria included in the SEPP allow the relevant consent authority to consider whether the proposed facility will adopt important principles such as waste minimization,” he said.

“These are standards and principles which the community has rightly come to expect and it is appropriate they are given statutory weight in the state’s planning laws.”

The amendment is the government’s latest response to the findings of the 2009 review into landfill capacity and demand undertaken by Tony Wright.

The new provisions replace the previous limited requirement to consider whether a proposal had demonstrated there was “justifiable demand” for the facility.

Kelly said this new approach retains the overall principle of justifying demand for landfill space but greatly strengthens how that needs to be demonstrated.

“Essentially, the applicant will now need to show concrete evidence of its measures to reduce waste, therefore demonstrating any residual demand for landfill is genuine,” he said.

The step is a lighter version than South Australia’s waste policy, which will mandate some level of waste processing before the residual can be landfilled. It is likely to be good news for Veolia’s Woodlawn landfill which, which may be able to remove its annual volume cap given it aims to be processing waste through a planned onsite facility called WASP.

In addition to waste minimisation criteria, the new provisions also include considerations such as whether the proposed landfill site is degraded, such as a disused mine, and whether transport links are optimised.

Kelly said to date these haven’t had to be explicitly considered by the consent authority.

“Now consent authorities will be able to ensure landfills are only going in the most appropriate locations and are being designed in the most appropriate ways,” he said.

“In this way, they will minimise not only impacts on the environment but on the amenity of local areas as well.”

The new provisions will apply to both non-putrescible and putrescible waste and will take effect immediately, including in the assessment of existing landfill proposals.

Changes to the Infrastructure SEPP
The amendment will replace the criteria in clause 123 of the Infrastructure SEPP with the following:

• a. Whether there is a suitable level of recovery of waste, such as by using alternative waste treatment or the composting of food and garden waste, so the amount of that waste is minimised before it is placed in the landfill;
• b. Whether the development: i. adopts best practice landfill design and operation; and ii. reduces the long term impacts of the disposal of waste, such as greenhouse gas emissions or the offsite impact of odours, by maximising landfill gas capture and energy recovery;
• c. If the proposal relates to a new or expanded landfill: i. whether the land on which the development is located is degraded land such as a disused mine site, and ii. whether the development is located so as to avoid land use conflicts, including whether it is consistent with any regional planning strategies or locational principles;

and

• d. Whether transport links to the landfill are optimised to reduce the environmental and social impacts associated with transporting waste to the landfill.
  

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