About WRAPP
NSW Government Policy
DOWNLOAD the NSW Government's Waste Reduction and Purchasing Policy guidelines
The NSW Government's Waste Reduction and Purchasing Policy (WRAPP) was announced by the Premier in September 1997 (see Premiers Memos 97-20) and amended in 1999 to include State Owned Corporations (Premier's Memo 99-19). The policy requires all state government agencies and state owned corporations to develop and implement a WRAPP plan to reduce waste in four areas:
- paper products
- office equipment and components
- vegetation material; and
- construction and demolition material.
It also requires that priority be given to buying materials with recycled content where they are cost and performance competitive. WRAPP plans set out information on strategies each agency will undertake to reduce waste and increase purchases of recycled content products and provide baseline and performance data on:
- total quantities of wastes being generated and recycled in each of the four categories above; and
- total quantities of materials being purchased which contain recycled content.
The policy requires large agencies (200 or more full time equivalent staff) to report progress in implementing their WRAPP plans biennially to the Office of Environment and Heritage (OEH), while smaller agencies only report WRAPP progress every three years in their annual report. See How to comply with WRAPP. Accordingly, state government agencies and state owned corporations should direct their WRAPP Plans, Progress Reports and any other WRAPP related enquiries to the WRAPP team.
WRAPP now forms part of the NSW Government Sustainability Policy, which sets new targets for resource use, disposal and procurement across energy, water, fleet and waste. This is the first step toward implementing focused carbon emission management to meet the NSW Government commitment to being Carbon Neutral by 2020. The nature of WRAPP has not changed, but it is now part of a broader approach to address the environmental concerns of Government and the community.
NSW Government - leading by example
The government is leading by example by incorporating waste minimisation and resource recovery principles into its business practices through its Procurement Policy and the WRAPP.
Reducing the amount of waste created and turning waste into recoverable resources is a priority for NSW. The Waste Avoidance and Resource Recovery Act 2001 requires OEH to develop a framework and to support implementation of state-wide, regional and local programs to avoid waste and recover resources. The strategy identifies key recycling priority areas and targets. Such programs and policies are outlined in the Waste Avoidance and Resource Recovery Strategy 2007.
A performance report against the recycling and other targets initially set in 2003 is provided every two years.
Waste Strategy 2007 retains the targets of Waste Strategy 2003 and proposes priority areas and actions to guide the work of all key groups in NSW in contributing to the minimisation of environmental harm from waste disposal and the conservation and efficient use of our resources.
To improve performance government agencies are also required to include the principles of ecologically sustainable development in business practices and policies. Ecologically sustainable development, or ESD simply means using, conserving and enhancing our natural resources so that ecological processes on which life depends, are maintained, and the total quality of life, now and in the future, is improved.
Environmental Management Systems guidelines have been developed to help agencies include environmental considerations in purchasing decisions.
These two initiatives support and complement each other: they help reduce resource use and to recover valuable resources from the waste stream. They also encourage the purchase of environmentally friendly products including those with recycled content.
Performance Audit
In June 2008 the Audit Office of NSW released the findings of a performance report to assess whether the WRAPP policy and its implementation had been effective in reducing waste and improving recycling and reuse. The audit did not focus on individual agency performance on waste reduction but rather the results achieved across the whole public sector. See the Audit Office report.
Page last updated: 03 August 2011
