Report into the commercial and industrial waste stream survey

Commercial and Industrial Waste Survey - Lower Hunter 2009

In 2009, the Department of Environment, Climate Change and Water (now known as the Office of Environment and Heritage) carried out a field audit and gatehouse survey to gain a clearer and more accurate understanding of what is in the commercial and industrial (C&I) waste stream in the Lower Hunter Region.  The Lower Hunter Region comprises the local government areas of Cessnock, Lake Macquarie, Maitland, Newcastle and Port Stephens.

The results of the audit showed that many of the materials in the waste stream could be diverted before they reach landfill or have potential resource value if they could be recovered or recycled cost-effectively.

This report is valuable for gaining an understanding of:

• the types and quantities of materials present in the C&I waste stream
• the types of businesses that contribute the most C&I waste
• the characteristics of waste disposed by different industry types.

The report can be used by:

• Council waste staff investigating the possibility of a commercial waste service collection
• Waste educators for identifying business types to target waste education programs towards
• Waste industry in looking for new waste recycling and management opportunities.

The project was completed with the assistance of staff at Awaba Waste Management Facility, Cessnock Waste & Reuse Centre, Mount Vincent Waste Management Centre, Sita Facility at Raymond Terrace and Summerhill Waste Management Centre.

Commercial and Industrial Waste in the Lower Hunter region (110139IndWasteLrHunter.pdf 387 kb)

Commercial and Industrial Waste Survey - Sydney 2008

Increased resource recovery from the commercial and industrial (C&I) sector will help reduce greenhouse gas emissions, save water and energy and help reach the NSW Waste Avoidance and Resource Recovery (WARR) Strategy target of recycling 63 per cent from the C&I waste stream by 2014.

The 2008 WARR Progress Report confirms recycling rates of 44 per cent and 42 per cent for C&I waste in 2006-07 in NSW and the Sydney Metropolitan Area (Sydney) respectively.

Although Sydney recycled 1.5 million tonnes of C&I waste that year, about 2 million tonnes including wood, food, plastics, paper and cardboard, still ended up in landfills. In total, NSW recycled 2.3 million tonnes of C&I waste the same year whilst nearly 3 million tonnes went to landfills.

The Department of Environment, Climate Change and Water NSW (now known as the Office of Environment and Heritage) carried out a field survey in 2008 to get a clearer and more accurate understanding of what is in the C&I waste stream. This survey included visual assessment of C&I mixed and single material loads delivered to six landfills and six transfer stations and weight based sorting of garbage bags from eight selected industry sectors.

The key findings of the survey are summarised in the 'Overview' and detailed in the 'Main Report'. 

Overview: Commercial and industrial waste in Sydney (2009616CIWasteSurvey.pdf 1.08MB)

Main report: Commercial and industrial waste in Sydney (105WasteSurveypt1.pdf 3.78MB)

Appendices: Commercial and industrial waste in Sydney (105WasteSurveyappend.pdf 1.71MB)

For further information:
Sustainability Programs on (02) 8837 6000 or email:
sustainability@environment.nsw.gov.au