Episode 7: In which we consider a policy of missed opportunities

Some time ago I wrote an article for The Conversation, an online journal, about the ACT government’s ban on plastic shopping bags which is due to take effect on 1 November. In the article I suggested that this policy move was little more than a high profile litter campaign and will achieve virtually nothing in waste minimisation. I also commented that the ACT had slipped from national leader in waste policy to laggard.

A few days after the article was published a representative of the government’s Department of Territory and Municipal Services phoned me to complain about the article, told me that I obviously hadn’t read their waste management strategy (in fact I was, and am, very familiar with it) and that they were still national leaders in waste. Unfortunately, the only area in which the ACT still leads Australia in waste is in its production, judging from an article* in yesterday’s CanberraTimes.

Such sensitivity to criticism of policy is uncommon in governments – hides like rhinoceroses, most of them – but where policy is based on outdated thinking or developed to cater for an industry sector, it is understandable that people responsible for implementation of flawed and unsound policy would be touchy. My main problem with the ACT’s Draft Sustainable Waste Management Strategy 2010-2025 is its short-sightedness and the fact that its developers have completely failed to build from the previous policy, No Waste by 2010, which was axed by the then Chief Minister in 2009 with the statement that it was never a realistic goal, just an aspirational target.

The No Waste policy was leading edge when it was developed in the mid-90s. The goal was always to achieve a total diversion of waste from landfill with maximum resource recovery. Within the first half of the program a 70% diversion rate from landfill had been achieved and around 200 ‘green’ jobs created in the ACT in the areas of recycling and waste minimisation. Then the rot set in. Much of it was political rot: the No Waste policy was an initiative of the Liberal government of Kate Carnell and the incoming Stanhope Labor government in 2001 did not see it as a priority and subsequently reduced funding and relegated the whole area to industry control. At the same time, the population of Canberra was increasing and with it an increase in waste generation.

By the time Stanhope pulled the plug on the No Waste policy it was languishing. The contractual arrangements with the waste industry meant that the government owned the landfill but one waste management company held the contract for its management and was being paid for tonnage over the weighbridge. The more waste over the weighbridge to landfill, the more income for the company. Not a lot of incentive for zero waste policy there. Instead of the government telling the industry what to do, it was the other way around. This remains the case.

The new Sustainable Waste Management Strategy is a retrograde step. It makes lots of promises, claims to have involved lots of community consultation but among the good intentions it provides no actual strategy for implementation, no guarantee for achieving outcomes and no timeline. It is policy better suited for the 1980s and early 1990s when the term ‘sustainability’ was still new. Now a decade into the 21^st Century and other Australian jurisdictions are using terms such as Waste Avoidance and Resource Recovery (NSW), Zero Waste (SA), Materials Efficiency (Vic), and even Qld** and WA, not long ago the national tailenders in waste policy, respectively have Waste Avoidance and Resource Efficiency and Towards Zero Waste.

The removal of the word ‘sustainability’ from these forward-looking waste policies and strategies is significant. There is, in fact, no way of dealing with waste sustainably. If waste generation is sustained, then the amount of waste to be managed is sustained. No amount of technology and shiny new waste facilities is going to reduce the amount of waste going into them. The only policy that can reduce waste is that which addresses the front-end of consumerism and takes the responsibility for policy implementation away from the waste industry and places it in government hands.

The ACT’s Sustainable Waste Management Policy is already making excuses for why the government will not implement a third bin collection system for organic waste. This is something most jurisdictions are moving towards and is highly successful in recovering tonnes of organic, including food, waste and turning it into compost to return to our depleted agricultural soils. It is estimated that something over 30,000 tonnes of food goes to landfill every year in the ACT, yet the government spends its time and energy on banning plastic bags, which, at the very outside, contribute about 60 tonnes to landfill.

When Jon Stanhope axed the No Waste policy the government announced that it would introduce street level recycling bins for public places. This has not happened. It announced a trial organic collection. This has not happened. Effectively, the government has axed a program that put the ACT at the forefront of waste policy in Australia and replaced it with a draft strategy based on two-decade old thinking and a ban on plastic bags for which the government has to do nothing.

There are many opportunities for innovation and leadership in waste policy. As an issue where society and environment interact it is one where local communities are calling for action. People don’t want more landfills, they want resource recovery and waste reduction. The ACT government has missed the boat on this one and instead of taking the initiative and looking forward, is sliding backwards.

*The article was "Let's talk trash: capital residents generating more garbage", by Bianca Hall, Canberra Times, 4th October 2011

**Although in a statement worthy of Joh Bjelke-Petersen, Qld Premier Anna Bligh blames much of Queensland’s waste problem on southerners. Yep, I can see it now. Mr and Mrs Sydney packing the car for their annual Gold Coast holiday: Beach umbrella? Check. Tickets for SeaWorld? Check. Kids? Check. Trailer load of garbage? Check.