Tuesday, 30 January 2018

COMMUNITY CONSULTATION ON MANAGING WASTE

The Victorian Government has held a community discussion about ways to manage our waste better for the benefit of communities, the economy and the environment.

Member for Eastern Victoria, Harriet Shing, attended the forum held in the Latrobe Valley, which provided an opportunity for the community to learn more about waste and resource recovery. Attendees provided valuable feedback on the role that the waste management and resource recovery sector should play both in the Latrobe Valley region and Victoria.

Topics discussed with the community included turning waste into energy, reducing plastic pollution and banning e-waste (electronic waste) from landfill.

The communities in the Latrobe Valley and Gippsland region were identified as key stakeholders in waste to energy discussions, with businesses in the former coal-based industry area showing a keen interest in the sector due to the positive economic, employment and environmental outcomes it could deliver.

At present, Victoria produces approximately 12.5 million tonnes of waste per year. Currently about 8.4 million tonnes of waste are recovered, but the remaining 4.1 million tonnes are sent to landfill.

The 2017-18 Victorian budget provided a record $30.4 million over four years in new funding to improve the way we manage waste and recover resources – including by developing new markets for recovered and recycled products, education and behaviour change, infrastructure and capacity building, and regulations to protect human health and the environment.

Learn more about what the Victorian Government is doing to reduce waste here: https://www.environment.vic.gov.au/sustainability/ministerial-statement-on-waste-and-resource-recovery

Quotes attributable to Member for Eastern Victoria Harriet Shing

“Waste to energy allows us to extract further value from our waste in the form of energy and helps us reduce our reliance on landfill and fossil fuels. It can drive economic and employment growth in the state, especially in regional Victoria.”

“The Victorian Government is developing a waste and resource recovery system that minimises waste generation, maximises resource recovery, and only uses landfill to dispose of materials that cannot be re-used or recovered.”