The Queensland Government Waste Management and Resource Recovery Strategy, underpinned by a waste disposal levy which commenced on 1 July 2019, provides the strategic framework for Queensland to become a zero waste society, where waste to landfill is avoided, reused or recycled to the greatest extent possible.
The strategy introduces a focus on transitioning to a circular economy. The purpose of the levy is to reduce the amount of waste going to landfill, encourage waste avoidance, provide a source of funding to enable better resource recovery practices, and facilitate investment in resource recovery infrastructure.
Despite measures to increase recycling to date, the volumes of waste generated and going to landfill are on the increase, and we really need to start implementing measures to stop our reliance on landfill. We need to implement measures to avoid generating waste, and look at how we can better reuse, repurpose and repair items we would otherwise discard and ensure they can be recycled at the end of their life rather than digging a hole in the ground to bury them, which only creates a myriad of other problems. This is how we can create a circular, rather than linear, solution.
States to our south have had waste levies in place for a number of years ahead of Queensland adopting a levy, and various State Environment Authorities have been implementing plans to facilitate a range of measures for Councils to reduce waste to landfill and encourage resource recovery initiatives. One of the most significant items that currently ends up in landfill is food waste and numerous NSW, Victorian and South Australian councils are at the forefront of implementing FOGO (Food Organics and Garden Organics) collection systems to prevent this resource from ending up in landfill, among a raft of other waste reduction measures.
Queensland Councils will have start looking at similar measures to meet the State’s waste reduction targets with food and organics a major contributor of landfill volume and greenhouse gases.
In Queensland, three Councils are already undertaking trials of food waste diversion programs from landfill funded by the waste levy. Food waste can be turned into compost, a valuable resource, rather than being landfilled. I’m writing this having just attended a three day National Conference on Waste Reduction and Resource Recovery in an effort to learn from the programs being implemented by Councils in other States.
Our Council went out for public consultation in the first quarter of this year with a waste questionnaire which will help to inform our waste strategy into the next five years and beyond. A draft strategy will be out for further consultation later this year incorporating those responses and measures our community will need to undertake to meet the Queensland Governments waste reduction targets.
For more information on the State Government’s Waste Levy, visit qld.gov.au/environment/management/waste/recovery/disposal-levy/about/overview or council’s waste services at noosa.qld.gov.au/environment-waste/waste-recycling
