Waste management and resource recovery framework
Waste Less, Recycle More: A 5-year $465.7 million Waste and Resource Recovery Initiative
The NSW Government has unveiled a new waste and recycling initiative, the Waste Less, Recycle More Initiative, which will transform waste and recycling. The initiative includes a $465.7 million five-year funding program and improvements to the waste levy system.
The new Waste and Recycling Infrastructure package, a key component of the new initiative, commits $250 million for targeted but wide-ranging funding that includes drop-off centres, food and garden organics processing, new and renovated infrastructure to support communities that pay the waste levy, recycling innovation, and support for businesses to increase recycling on-site.
The Environment Protection Authority (EPA) will lead the implementation of the Waste Less, Recycle More initiative.
The focus of the EPA in managing waste is to provide a clear and consistent regulatory and policy framework that minimises harm to the environment and encourages waste avoidance and resource recovery. This framework uses a mix of legislative, policy, education and economic tools.
The EPA administers the waste regulatory framework through the state’s primary environment protection legislation, the Protection of the Environment Operations Act 1997 (POEO Act), together with the Waste Avoidance and Resource Recovery Act 2001 and the Protection of the Environment Operations (Waste) Regulation 2005. These key statutes contain the requirements for managing, storing, transporting, processing, recovering and disposing of waste.
Regulatory mechanisms in the legislation, such as the waste and environment levy, help drive waste avoidance and resource recovery by providing an economic incentive to reduce waste disposal and stimulate investment and innovation in resource recovery technologies.
To facilitate the beneficial reuse of waste materials, the EPA is able to exempt from certain regulatory requirements the use of waste as fuel or its application to land. These exemptions are known as resource recovery exemptions and are issued where the proposed use of the waste material is beneficial and does not harm the environment or human health.
Reducing the generation of waste, and turning waste into recoverable resources are both firmly established as priorities for NSW under the Waste Avoidance and Resource Recovery Act 2001, which sets the policy framework. Targets and other outcomes have been set under the Waste Avoidance and Resource Recovery Strategy. The Waste Less Recycle More initiative will provide funding to meet the challenge of ambitious goals in the strategy.
More information:
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Page last updated: 23 February 2013
