Waste management in Australia
Waste management is the collection, transport, processing (waste
treatment), recycling or disposal of waste materials, usually ones
produced by human activity, in an effort to reduce their effect on human
health or local aesthetics or amenity. A sub-focus in recent decades has
been to reduce waste materials' effect on the natural world and the
environment and to recover resources from them.
Waste management can involve solid, liquid or gaseous with different
methods and fields of expertise for each.
Waste management practices differ for developed and developing
nations, for urban and rural areas, and for residential, industrial, and
commercial producers. Waste management for non-hazardous residential and
institutional waste in metropolitan areas is usually the responsibility
of local government authorities.
Due to rapid urbanization and lack of awareness among citizens Solid
waste has become a major problem in urban and rural society. The amount
and type has increased multifold. Effective handling and lifting from
the source has become an important step to make the area clean and
healthy.
If we study the pattern of waste from last two decades it was found
out that there is an increase from wet waste material to dry due to
packaging in plastic which is cheap, strong and provide moisture free
environment for the material. Until we find the alternative to this, the
use of plastic will not stop even by law. The need is to minimize the
use and effective collection and disposal of it.
Many in the waste management industry are finding new ways to reuse
and recover waste rather than simply disposing it in landfills or other
locations. In response to this industry trend, the Environment
Protection Agency (EPA) has also broadened our focus beyond waste
disposal to dealing with applications for reuse projects on a
case-by-case basis.
The EPA Board formed a subcommittee to consider these changes in the
waste management industry, and published their findings and
recommendations.
The recommendations of the report included:
- reviewing the approach to waste to resources in the Environment
Protection Act 1993 to ensure a risk-based framework is provided
- development of an EPP to promote sustainability objectives
- articulation of the objectives and principles of waste
management regulation in South Australia
- Development of further advice on waste-derived materials.
The EPA is addressing these recommendations through the waste
management reform project and is consulting with industry throughout the
project.
The project covers a number of related areas:
Waste-derived materials
Waste-derived materials consist of waste that has undergone
processing to enable it to be beneficially reused. Some examples include
recovered materials used as fill for infrastructure developments,
refuse-derived fuel, biosolids from human waste that treated and applied
to the land as fertilizer, and reclaimed water from waste used for
irrigation.
Legislative and regulation review
- Environment Protection (Waste to Resources) Policy
The EPA is in the process of developing Environment Protection (Waste
to Resources) Policy (Waste to Resources EPP) for the consideration of
the Minister. The general purpose of the Waste to Resources EPP will be
to provide for waste to be managed in a more sustainable way that will
help protect the environment and public health as well as promote
appropriate recovery of resources. It will provide a stronger regulatory
basis for strategies within South Australia's State Waste Strategy
2005-2010. Once the draft EPP is completed it will be made available for
public comment.
- Review of Schedule 1 of the Environment Protection Act 199
Activities of environmental significance or those activities that
require a licence are outlined in Part A of Schedule 1 of the
Environment Protection Act 1993. As part of a wider review of the
Schedule, waste to resources activities will undergo an assessment to
ensure that the types of activities to be licensed are those found to be
of higher risk based on the:
- Risk of environmental harm (likelihood and consequence)
associated with the activity type
- Level of complexity or specificity of management requirements
for the activity to avoid unacceptable impacts and/or to support
sustainable development.
The way that the activities are described will also be reviewed to
both improve interpretability and ensure the thresholds are appropriate.
This process is underway and it is envisaged that a draft version of
the schedule will be released for consultation late 2008.
- Waste management regulatory framework
As part of the decision-making process for the EPA regulation of the
waste management industry, the EPA considers the:
- Risks of environmental harm associated with the activity type
- Level of complexity or specificity of management requirements
for the activity to avoid unacceptable harm and/or to support
sustainable development
- Need to act in accordance with the polluter-pays principle.
In the process of this consideration there are a number of tools
available to the EPA under the Environment Protection Act 1993 and the
Development Act 1993
- Review of Compliance and enforcement guidelines
The EPA Compliance and Enforcement Guidelines provide direction on
the use of the compliance and enforcement provisions of the EPA Act,
thus assisting industry and community groups to understand EPA responses
to issues. This document is currently under review to ensure its
currency and suitability. |
