❓ Mr. Alban inquires about a new construction and demolition materials recycling program. The Minister details the program's funding, incentives for local governments, and its aim to improve WA's recycling rates.
AnsweredQoN 201Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
CONSTRUCTION AND DEMOLITION MATERIALS —
RECYCLING PROGRAM
201. Mr F.A. ALBAN to the Minister for
Environment:
I note that the minister recently
launched a program to support greater recycling of construction and demolition
materials to prevent them going to landfill. Can the minister please advise the
house how this program will work?
RECYCLING PROGRAM
201. Mr F.A. ALBAN to the Minister for
Environment:
I note that the minister recently
launched a program to support greater recycling of construction and demolition
materials to prevent them going to landfill. Can the minister please advise the
house how this program will work?
AnswerView source ↗
I thank the member for Swan Hills
for the question. Recycling rates in Western Australia are something that we
take very seriously as a government. Back in 2012, we set for ourselves some
quite ambitious targets to achieve higher levels of recycling—levels
more comparable with what is seen in other states. If we divide the waste
stream into three main areas, being commercial and industrial waste, municipal
and solid waste and construction and demolition waste, the area in which we
lagged the furthest behind the other states was construction and demolition
waste. We have taken two actions as a government. The first of those is a policy
response with what we have done around the waste levy to drive recycling
outcomes in the market. That is working exceptionally well as an incentive
mechanism to drive waste away from landfill —
Several members interjected.
The
SPEAKER : Member for West Swan, I call you to order for the second time.
Member for Cockburn, I call you to order for the first time.
Mr
A.P. JACOB : We are aiming to drive waste away from landfill and towards
recycled outcomes. Through our procurement program, we are also providing
market incentives not only in the form of the levy, but also by setting aside
$10 million of those levy funds for the next five years, which sit as a dedicated
grants program to incentivise local governments and other agencies to use that
recycled product as either road base, drainage aggregate or clean fill. The way
the system will work is that we will pay a per-tonne rate for every tonne of
recycled material that can be channelled into, say, a local government road
project, a car park base or drainage aggregate. It works on two levels. In the
first instance, there is a per capita allocation towards metropolitan local
governments to incentivise them to engage with us in the first instance and
there is an unallocated pool from which local governments that may have already
exceeded their allocated share can bid for further funds above and beyond. As I
said, it is a $10 million incentive program to take that waste.
We have on the one end of the stick,
if you like, the motivator in a regulatory sense, which is now the waste levy,
but we are also as a government looking towards incentives to drive a holistic
market that delivers significant recycling outcomes. We have gone from a state
that was lagging well behind our comparators to a state that in the future, we
believe, can be a leader in this nation with the right policy settings. It
contrasts again, very interestingly, with the policy position of members
opposite. We are always happy to take interjections and have things thrown
across the chamber at us, but when it comes to outlining an alternative vision,
there is absolutely nothing there. There is some broad reference to insisting
that material is re-used wherever possible, but not the hard, heavy policy work—not
only the difficult decisions in the levy mechanism, but also engaging with
industry to find incentives such as this $10 million program over the next five
years.
for the question. Recycling rates in Western Australia are something that we
take very seriously as a government. Back in 2012, we set for ourselves some
quite ambitious targets to achieve higher levels of recycling—levels
more comparable with what is seen in other states. If we divide the waste
stream into three main areas, being commercial and industrial waste, municipal
and solid waste and construction and demolition waste, the area in which we
lagged the furthest behind the other states was construction and demolition
waste. We have taken two actions as a government. The first of those is a policy
response with what we have done around the waste levy to drive recycling
outcomes in the market. That is working exceptionally well as an incentive
mechanism to drive waste away from landfill —
Several members interjected.
The
SPEAKER : Member for West Swan, I call you to order for the second time.
Member for Cockburn, I call you to order for the first time.
Mr
A.P. JACOB : We are aiming to drive waste away from landfill and towards
recycled outcomes. Through our procurement program, we are also providing
market incentives not only in the form of the levy, but also by setting aside
$10 million of those levy funds for the next five years, which sit as a dedicated
grants program to incentivise local governments and other agencies to use that
recycled product as either road base, drainage aggregate or clean fill. The way
the system will work is that we will pay a per-tonne rate for every tonne of
recycled material that can be channelled into, say, a local government road
project, a car park base or drainage aggregate. It works on two levels. In the
first instance, there is a per capita allocation towards metropolitan local
governments to incentivise them to engage with us in the first instance and
there is an unallocated pool from which local governments that may have already
exceeded their allocated share can bid for further funds above and beyond. As I
said, it is a $10 million incentive program to take that waste.
We have on the one end of the stick,
if you like, the motivator in a regulatory sense, which is now the waste levy,
but we are also as a government looking towards incentives to drive a holistic
market that delivers significant recycling outcomes. We have gone from a state
that was lagging well behind our comparators to a state that in the future, we
believe, can be a leader in this nation with the right policy settings. It
contrasts again, very interestingly, with the policy position of members
opposite. We are always happy to take interjections and have things thrown
across the chamber at us, but when it comes to outlining an alternative vision,
there is absolutely nothing there. There is some broad reference to insisting
that material is re-used wherever possible, but not the hard, heavy policy work—not
only the difficult decisions in the levy mechanism, but also engaging with
industry to find incentives such as this $10 million program over the next five
years.
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