Beyond Waste

The Greens (WA) recognise that we need to move beyond the ‘end of pipe’¹ waste management paradigm. We support the ecologically sustainable principles embedded in Zero Waste² programs that entail Reducing, Reusing, Recycling, and Recovery (RRRR) of discarded products, materials and greenwaste.

Goals
The Greens (WA) want:

• a Zero Waste² society
• clean production to reduce industrial waste streams
• policy and financial incentives to develop processes for recycling and recovery of domestic and industrial wastes
• cleaner production targets for commercial hazardous waste streams

Initiatives
The Greens (WA) will initiate and support legislation and actions that:

• implement a container deposit systems for Western Australia
• eliminate landfilling of household, industrial, municipal, commercial and hazardous waste within 10 years
• require mandatory ‘cradle to cradle’ product stewardship by manufacturers and importers of consumer goods, particularly electronic goods
• require industrial design responsibility, so that if products cannot be designed to be RRRR then they cannot be sold to consumers
• ensure that the full ecological costs of virgin products³ are incorporated into the price of the product
• ensure that any new proposals that generate dioxin and persistent organic pollutants⁴ by processes such as mixed waste landfills and waste incinerators comply with Western Australia’s obligations under the Stockholm Treaty and phase out any existing non-complying technologies by 2010
• prevent the term ‘recycling or recovery’ being used to justify export to, or siting of, waste treatment facilities in disadvantaged communities in Australia or overseas
• move away from polluting ‘Hot’ Recovery technologies (incineration, pyrolysis, gasification, and direct thermal desorption) towards non-polluting recovery technologies such as greenwaste composting and anaerobic digestion
• set stringent standards for waste derived soil amendments, composts and ‘fertilisers’ to prevent contamination of agricultural lands and to increase soil productivity
• provide government assistance and promotion for home composting programs that prevent kitchen and greenwaste from entering the domestic waste stream
• prevent the composting of mixed municipal waste which is highly contaminated and unsuitable for application on food growing land
• establish specific rules to maximise RRRR from materials in the construction and demolition industry in Western Australia
• educate the community about the consequences of generating waste and the benefits of and ways to participate in RRRR
• create cost efficient reporting systems to define the true volumes, generators and types of waste, so as to target reduction strategies and evaluate success
• finance independent testing and evaluation of products, with frequent reporting of comparisons, and create a 'shame file' website to identify those products found to be unreliable, short-lived, energy hungry, non-recyclable, unreasonably costly to repair or replace, toxic, or dangerous, and those businesses with poor practices
• increase funding for Department of Environment and Conservation staff to better regulate waste management facilities and landfills
• support and fund comprehensive recycling and recovery infrastructure tailored to regional Western Australia

Glossary
1. end of pipe - technologies such as waste dumps, landfill sites and incinerators that attempt to deal with waste generated at the 'back end' of the production process instead of reducing hazardous waste at the front end through better designed industrial processes and material substitution.
2. Zero Waste – Zero Waste requires eliminating subsidies for raw material extraction and waste disposal, and holding producers responsible for their products and packaging 'from cradle to cradle'. It also refers to the policies and practice that support the development of beneficial uses for materials currently deemed 'waste' which then become resources.
3. virgin products – products made from newly processed raw materials and containing no recycled materials.
4. Persistent Organic Pollutants - Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) are a class of chemicals that persist in the environment, are capable of long-range transport, bio-accumulate in human and animal tissue, and have significant impacts on human health and the environment, even at low concentrations. They include such substances as dioxin, PCBs and DDT.