Queensland is one of the largest generators of waste in Australia.
We produce more than 32 million tonnes of waste every single year, which is the highest amount of waste per capita of any state.
We all produce waste in our daily lives, and every year as our population increases, so does our waste generation. This situation has serious long-term environmental, social and economic implications for the state. We lose industry investment, job opportunities and regional market growth - while creating greenhouse gases and wasting valuable and often non-renewable resources.
Considerable work is currently underway nationally to address waste and increase resource recovery.
I quote The Honourable Kate Jones MP Minister for Climate Change and Sustainability.
We all strive for a waste management system where recycling is the first option over landfill and more unwanted materials are given a new life by someone else. We want more trash to become someone else's treasure.
The Queensland Waste Reduction and Recycling Strategy is underpinned by the Waste and Resource Management Hierarchy. This is an internationally recognised framework for managing waste generation and disposal describes the preferred order for managing wastes and resources.
The hierarchy places waste reduction as the preferred option, followed by reuse, through recycling and recovery options to disposal as the least preferred approach. Waste is an inefficient use of natural resources, water, energy, money and land.
Waste Production has the following impacts:
- Environmental Impacts: Even disposal of wastes into well-designed and managed landfills can create environmental impacts, from transporting the waste for disposal, to potential leachate, odour and greenhouse gas emission impacts
- Social Impacts: Puts pressure on local councils to find suitable sites for new disposal facilities that won't impact on nearby land uses, such as residential areas, which is increasingly difficult and expensive, leading to higher costs for ratepayers
- Economic Impacts: Queensland is losing valuable investment and job creation opportunities in the resource recovery sector to other states where there are clear incentives to reuse and recycle.
As Queensland's population grows and standards of living increases, more goods are consumed and more waste is produced. For households, waste management charges appear as a fixed amount on rates notices. In most cases, the charge is the same, regardless of how much or little waste the householder generates.
This means there is no immediate impertavie or incentive to take action and avoid generating waste, reduce the amount of waste discarded or even to recycle more effectively.