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The goal of Halve Waste is to reduce the waste to landfill by 50% by 2020. A major step in achieving this is the target to reduce waste landfilled at AWMC to 75,000 tonnes per year by 2018 financial year end. We’re at the half-way point and this looks like being achieved.

If you haven’t heard it already, the household recycling industry is in all sorts of trouble. 2018 is going to be a troubled year for most MRFs (Materials Recovery Facilities) and therefore their council clients. The Chinese National Sword policy has bitten and bitten hard. National Sword is the Chinese government’s mechanism to restrict import licences for recycled product and limit contamination rates of those recyclables to less than 0.5%.

The NSW EPA has opened round 2 of its $3M Organics Market Development grants under the NSW Government Waste Less Recycle More initiative (WLRM). The new grants support activities that will improve the demand for recycled organics.

The NSW EPA has opened round 3 of its $2.5M Circulate Industrial Ecology (CIE) under the NSW Government Waste Less Recycle More initiative (WLRM). The new grants provide an opportunity for the establishment of viable industrial ecology relationships to divert valuable resources from landfill. The program supports projects that will recover materials (otherwise sent to landfill) to be used as feedstock for other commercial, industrial or construction processes.

The NSW EPA has opened the first round of its $2.5M Civil Construction Market Program (CCMP) under the NSW Government Waste Less Recycle More initiative (WLRM). The new grants provide an opportunity for eligible entities to reduce the amount of C&D material being sent to landfill by reusing and recycling resources in other NSW civil construction projects.

On 15 October, the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) released a copy of its report 'Towards a pollution-free planet'. The report links consumption to waste and then to pollution, with one of the five key messages being: A new approach to managing our lives and economies: sustainable consumption and production, through improved resource efficiency and lifestyle changes, should be promoted; waste reduction and management must be prioritised.

More than a week after the Queensland election, current predictions are for a Labor majority. At the same time, the NSW EPA has told a NSW parliamentary inquiry that the scale of waste transport to Queensland is far higher than previously believed. An eye-watering 830,000 tonnes was transported in 2016/17, largely by rail, almost double the 430,000 tonnes transported in the previous year.

The Albury Waste Management Centre (AWMC) includes the fourth largest landfill in NSW, and now the centrepiece of Halve Waste, the most successful waste reduction program in Australia. The Halve Waste Initiative has recently been awarded the best organics recovery program in NSW and the best local government initiative in sustainability.

The NSW EPA has opened the fifth round of its $500,000 Weighbridge Fund under NSW Government Waste Less Recycle More initiative (WLRM). The new grants provide a one-off opportunity for eligible facilities to accelerate the installation of a weighbridge in compliance with the Protection of the Environment Operations (Waste) Regulation 2014 that requires any facility recovering, recycling, processing or storing waste and is liable for the waste levy in NSW to install a weighbridge and accurately record waste movements.

Albury City Council was recognised for its considerable achievements in implementing a FOGO service for residents in Albury and neighbouring councils at the NSW Australian Organics Recycling Association (AORA) Annual awards ceremony on Friday 10 November.

The NSW EPA has released its first round of Food Donation Education grants under the $337 million NSW Government Waste Less Recycle More initiative (WLRM). The new grants are open to councils, NGOs, community groups and NFPs. They offer funding to deliver projects that increase the efficiency and capacity of food relief organisations to collect and redistribute high-quality surplus food, to reduce the amount of organic material going to landfill.

The NSW EPA has released its fourth round of Council Litter Prevention grants under the $337 million NSW Government Waste Less Recycle More initiative (WLRM). The new grants are open to councils and offer funding to deliver local litter prevention projects, to help meet NSW’s litter reduction goal.