ISSUE 119 | APR/MAY 2024
30 Coffs Waste Conference 32 Doing better with tyres 40 Organics
EPA Victoria’s Lee Miezis By Inside Waste
Image: KaliAntye/Shutterstock.com
How do landfill levies impact on the C&D sector? By Inside Waste
PP: 100024538
ISSN 1837-5618
THE first landfill levies were imposed in NSW in 1971 and it cost approximately $0.50 a tonne. Since then, several issues have arisen with regards to levies, especially over the past decade when government-imposed waste targets have shown the important role levies have to play if those targets are to be met. According to the latest National Waste Report C&D and C&I are the biggest waste streams at 81 per cent (43 per cent for C&I, and 38 per cent for C&D). C&D is easy to recycle. However, large amounts of it have been landfilled because it has been the cheapest option. While that has changed in some states due to an increase in landfill levies, there are still some areas where it is cheaper to put it in the ground rather than reuse or recycle. A recent seminar titled The Impact of Landfill Levies on the Construction
and Demolition Sector outlined some of the challenges, and possible solutions, to these issues. Chaired by RMIT University’s Dr Salman Shooshtarian, a panel of experts in the sector consisted of Valentina Petrone, associate director, ANZ Circular Economy Lead, WSP; Adam Gray, CEO, Waste & Recycling Industry Association for NT and SA; and Andrew Beckman, C&D health safety community and sustainability manager, Cleanaway. Beckman is convinced that landfill levies have been a good thing in terms of contributing to a behavioural change in the way C&D waste is managed around Australia. “These changes are really starting to lead to new and emerging opportunities with improving product stewardship,” he said. “Emerging offtake markets are starting to come forward and there’s a good outlook to improve circularity. However, the rate of growth and changing customer expectations will require the sector
and stakeholders to work together to manage these challenges.” According to Beckman, one aspect that needs to be considered is that opinions on levies vary depending on where a company sits in the value chain. “The change is not just about policy, it’s about enabling a platform for us to evolve perceptions of waste management among customers who are increasingly viewing C&D waste management as an integral part of sustainable business practices,” he said. Beckman said that this strategy allowed the likes of Cleanaway to have conversations and encourage businesses to embrace sustainable and environmentally sound practices. More importantly, it’s moving the sector to a user pays approach across the country. He also pointed out that it is obvious that the lack of harmonisation of levies has shown which states are moving ahead with better recycling rates. (Continued on page 16)
DURING the Waste Expo 2022, EPA Victoria’s CEO Lee Miezis spoke about the government watchdog’s first year operating under the state’s Environment Protection Act 2017, which commenced in July 2021. Twelve months later, he was back at the 2023 event to update the waste/resource recovery sector on the activities EPA Victoria undertook over the past 12 months and how it has carried out its responsibilities under the Act. He reiterated that his department’s role Is to be an independent regulator that works at state, national and international levels to “protect our communities and our environment from the harmful effects of pollution and waste”. Over the previous year, the organisation focused on four objectives, which were to: • make Victorians aware of their responsibilities to prevent harm to human health and the environment; • target priority risks of harm so that the EPA’s inputs are optimised to make the biggest difference; • integrate environmental public health into everything it does; and • to strengthen the culture and the EPA’s capability to achieve organisational excellence. “It’s not just about the activity we did, it’s about our impact,” said Miezis. “I want to focus on some of those key results we achieved and how we performed against the key performance measures aligned to those strategic outcomes in our strategic plan.” (Continued on page 23)
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