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Waste reduction and avoidance
Waste disposal is wasteful:
- It costs you money.
- It makes potential resources unavailable for other purposes.
- It costs energy for no gain.
- It puts potentially harmful substances in a position where they could enter the environment.
The 3 R's
For many years now we have been encouraged to Reduce, Reuse, Recycle:
Reduce our use of resources. If a process can be performed with less input, it makes economic sense to do so, and this brings the added benefit of releasing resources, such as soil and water, for ecosystem functions.
Reuse materials instead of replacing them. For example, bricks, timber and tiles salvaged from demolished buildings can be reused more or less as is. Because they are not being made anew, their cost is obviously going to be less. This reduces society’s reliance on raw materials and our release of greenhouse gases.
Recycle materials into new materials. A good example is aluminium, which can be melted down and made into new products for only 1/10 of the cost of making new aluminium from bauxite. It makes economic sense, and it has broader benefits in reducing the release of pollutants from smelters.
To these we can add Avoid. If we don’t need something, why make it or pay for it? Packaging is the obvious example. Why are pencils, for example, sold two to a plastic and cardboard packet that is made only so that it can be thrown away? Avoiding packaging in the first place saves resources for more important uses, reduces energy consumption and reduces waste. (Of course, some packaging is essential: to prevent breakages or spoilage, for example.)
NSW Waste Avoidance and Resource Recovery Act 2001
The NSW Waste Avoidance and Resource Recovery Act was passed with the following aims:
- to encourage the most efficient use of resources and to reduce environmental harm in accordance with the principles of ecologically sustainable development
- to ensure that resource management options are considered against a hierarchy of the following order:
(i) avoidance of unnecessary resource consumption
(ii) resource recovery (including reuse, reprocessing, recycling and energy recovery)
(iii) disposal
- to provide for the continual reduction in waste generation
- to minimise the consumption of natural resources and the final disposal of waste by encouraging the avoidance of waste and the reuse and recycling of waste
- to ensure that industry shares with the community the responsibility for reducing and dealing with waste
- to ensure the efficient funding of waste and resource management planning, programs and service delivery
- to achieve integrated waste and resource management planning, programs and service delivery on a statewide basis
- to assist in the achievement of the objectives of the Protection of the Environment Operations Act 1997.
Priorities for NSW
The Act encourages industries to take voluntary actions to reduce the environmental impacts of their products. Manufacturers can play a role beyond the point of sale or warranty by, for example, designing products that produce less waste, use fewer resources, and contain more recycled and less-toxic components. Notably, if performance does not improve, industries can be compelled to keep products and materials out of the waste stream and reduce their environmental impact.
The NSW Government identified 9 wastes for priority focus. Among them, SESL’s clients are likely to have to deal with used tyres, agricultural and veterinary chemicals and their containers, and packaging waste.
Simplified requirements for waste management and regulation in NSW
Comprehensive changes to legislation governing the management of waste are designed to streamline waste licensing and regulation and better promote resource recovery. Changes include:
- fewer and simpler licensing categories for waste
- a streamlined waste classification system
- new resource recovery licensing categories and resource recovery exemptions
- clearer requirements for managing asbestos and clinical waste.
Information is available at http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/waste/. SESL staff will be happy to help you meet the legislative requirements.