Strategy

The NSW Waste and Sustainable Materials Strategy 2041 has ambitious targets to achieve an 80% average recovery rate from all waste streams, triple the plastics recycling rate and halve the amount of organic waste sent to landfill by 2030. 

One of the most interesting Coffs Waste sessions this year was the COAG panel discussion addressing the forthcoming export bans on glass, plastics, paper and tyres where Minister Trevor Evans made a number of interesting key points.

The National Waste Action Plan 2019 was agreed by Federal, State and Local governments setting national targets and actions for reducing waste to landfill. To achieve this, industry, waste generators and local government need the right market signals and regulations to drive the necessary investment.

MRA managing director Mike Ritchie recently sent Minister Kean an open letter recognising the State's successes in waste management and identifying key concerns and potential solutions for supporting resource recovery post COVID-19.

MRA believes there are huge jobs, resource and carbon opportunities in recycling and waste management. In its submission to the Inquiry into Australia’s Waste Management and Recycling Industries, MRA has identified some of the key requirements for capturing these opportunities.

One billion single use coffee cups are sent to landfill every year. Sounds like a lot but this represents less than 0.0004% of the waste generated in Australia per year. So, what can we do to deal with coffee cups so that we can focus on significant streams like organics (particularly food), which represent around 50% of all waste to landfill in Australia?

The Australian Commonwealth has achieved a first. A Minister for Waste (and Environmental Management) was announced by the Morrison Government. In the 200 years since colonial settlement we have not had a Minister with Waste in their title. I hope that ushers in a period of attention and reform.

Waste and recycling reform is on the move. The Federal Government has announced it will revive the National Waste Strategy by the end of 2018. As part of the discussion on strategic direction I thought it would be useful to go back and revisit a previous strategic review and see what we have achieved (or not) in NSW. To put it another way, while there is a lot of movement at present, is the movement achieving the main priorities?

Following Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk’s announcement back in March 20th, the Queensland Government released for public consultation a directions paper on the State’s recycling and waste industry.

Matt has a reputation for making things happen. For being able to make the complex simple. This happens by being able to speak both private sector and government languages. Making sustainability mainstream. Whether that’s partnering with management consultants or using his influence on the school Council to get solar panels on the local primary school.

When I first came across Gayle, she was totally owning a huge plenary session at the Coffs Harbour conference. She was witty, considered, confident and well across a role that she had only been in for about six months. You’d be hard pressed to guess that Gayle hates public speaking. But she does.

Friday 17th March, marked the deadline for tender submissions to operate the NSW Container Deposit Scheme (CDS). Next steps will be the appointment by the Minister of the Scheme Coordinator and Network Operators in June 2017. By 1 December 2017, over 430 Collection Points need to be established. This article sets out the basics of the Scheme.