NATIONAL PACKAGING

The Hon. R.P. WORTLEY (14:59): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Environment and Heritage a question about national packaging.

Leave granted.

The Hon. R.P. WORTLEY: Recent reports reveal that Australia's recycling rate is not as good as previously accounted for by industry. It appears that the National Packaging Covenant reporting has included, amongst other things, glass recycling in New Zealand and has failed to recognise the amount of glass imported in wine and beer bottles. The Hyder consulting report, 'Recycling activity in South Australia 2005-06', prepared for Zero Waste South Australia—and available on the Zero Waste SA website—shows that, per capita, South Australia recycles considerably more than any other state, and only the ACT recycles marginally more than South Australia. Will the minister inform the council of what can be done to increase Australia's performance to be more in line with South Australia's?

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. G.E. GAGO (Minister for Environment and Conservation, Minister for Mental Health and Substance Abuse, Minister Assisting the Minister for Health) (15:00): Those sitting opposite obviously do not care about recycling and waste management. It is a shame, Mr President. Those opposite are not interested and do not care about recycling—

The PRESIDENT: The minister should refrain from exciting the opposition.

The Hon. G.E. GAGO: I know that those on this side of the chamber are interested in what is going on. I thank the honourable member for his question. As the honourable member explained, the Hyder Consulting report, 'Recycling activity in South Australia 2005-06', prepared for Zero Waste SA shows that South Australia recycles considerably more than any other state capital. A big part of this is the beverage container deposit system that we have had in place for the past 30 years, alongside our kerbside collection program and, of course, the levy on landfill.

The National Packaging Covenant referred to by the honourable member and agreed to by the industry, the states and the commonwealth is aimed at reducing the amount of packaging disposed to landfill. It includes requirements for the packaging industry to report recycling rates for its products. It has a stated aim of a 65 per cent recovery rate by 2010.

The Boomerang Alliance and others—for example, the Conservation Council—have frequently raised concerns about industry reporting of recycling rates. Recycling rates in Australia appear to have been inflated by industry figures, for example, by including glass cullet imported from recycling collections in New Zealand. The covenant recorded a 56 per cent recycling rate in 2005-06, but it got a second opinion from an independent consultant, Pitcher Partners, who found that the real figure was more like 43 per cent.

The concern is that the covenant will fall well short of its intended recovery rate of 65 per cent by 2010, whether or not the industry figures are accurate, and that is why South Australia is suggesting that we have a national container deposit scheme. We will propose that a national container deposit system be adopted by every jurisdiction in Australia at the ministerial council meeting on the environment next week. There is considerable interest amongst other states in how our scheme operates.

We have heard for 30 years from the beverage industry why other states cannot introduce a container deposit scheme, but now it is clearly time to act. Kerbside recycling is a terrific innovation and it has boosted resource recovery rates. Zero Waste SA has been encouraging local councils to implement high performing kerbside recyclables collection. We also have the best kerbside collection of household recyclables in the world, but half of these beverage containers are consumed away from home at pubs, clubs, events and ovals. We have seen an explosion in sales of bottled water, mixed alcoholic drinks and so on, which are designed to be consumed in public places, away from home and away from kerbside recycling.

A national container deposit on beverage containers will go a long way to fixing the problems, as we have demonstrated in South Australia, and the South Australian public knows what a winner our system is. Recycling resources, getting rid of the concept of waste and understanding that all materials are resources that must be used again and again, is central to moving us towards a sustainable and low carbon society. An effective means of getting materials back into the system after their initial use is to add a deposit in order to provide an incentive for return. Extended producer responsibility is a vital part of reducing the waste of precious resources, including energy and water, and the SA container deposit scheme is, indeed, a great model.