Waste Management

Ms LUETHEN (King) (15:01): My question is to the Minister for Environment and Water. Can the minister update the house about how the Marshall Liberal government is supporting South Australians to improve household waste disposal practices?

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS (Black—Minister for Environment and Water) (15:01): It is great to be able to answer this question from the member for King and I know that she is passionate about helping her community reduce its environmental footprint, particularly when it comes to effective waste management. I have been following her social media and seeing her walking around the hills and vales of Golden Grove, Greenwith and the other suburbs in her electorate, handing out those Which Bin fridge magnets so that her community can lift their awareness and understanding of what to put in which bin and do their bit effectively. The member for King is right behind that movement towards better waste management in our north-eastern suburbs.

We know that since the COVID pandemic came to Australia unfortunately waste management, particularly where we can record in South Australia, is not going as well as it could do. We have seen a 10 per cent spike in the amount of waste created at household level during COVID-19, and we believe that's largely because of people doing things differently in terms of the change of habits in the way they live their lives.

Daily rituals have changed and so, with people staying at home more, they are generating more waste at household level, particularly food waste. This is what the member for King has been working hard to reduce in her community: food waste. We know that about 40 per cent of all waste that goes into the bin for municipal general waste—that is largely the red bin across Adelaide and a blue-lidded bin in a couple of councils—is food waste.

We can drive this down because getting food waste out of that bin, out of landfill, will reduce greenhouse gas emissions and will also end up going through industrial composting if processed through the green bin, the organics bin, leading to better, healthier, more water-retentive South Australian soils and, of course, creating more jobs. We know that by processing green waste effectively through the green organics bin we create three times the number of jobs than if waste simply goes into landfill. So there is a win-win-win coming from doing this effectively.

We have been working hard through Green Industries South Australia to work with local councils in particular and private businesses as well to lift the standard of how green waste is managed at a community level and at council level. I am delighted to be able to provide the house with information that we have provided $1.58 million in funding to assist particularly local councils—a couple of the private businesses along the way, but largely local councils—in diverting green waste from landfill. This funding will go towards helping councils provide households with things like kitchen caddies and biodegradable bags so that food scraps can go from the kitchen worktop into the kitchen caddy. It just makes it easier to put it into the green bin.

We are also working with councils on opt-in food waste programs, where certain households that want to be involved and that make a choice to be involved can put up their hand to get a weekly green bin collection, further enhancing the amount of green waste that goes through the industrial composting process. We do strongly think this is the right direction to go in, and the member for King knows that. She is getting out there into her community, raising awareness of these programs and encouraging people to do the right thing when it comes to green waste.