WASTE COLLECTION

The Hon. D.G.E. HOOD (14:41): My question is directed to the Minister for Sustainability, Environment and Conservation. Has the government been approached by any representative of any metropolitan council regarding a proposal to collect waste—that is, excluding recyclables and green waste—on a fortnightly basis rather than a weekly basis? If such approaches have been made to the minister, when were they made and what is the government's position on this issue?

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER (Minister for Sustainability, Environment and Conservation, Minister for Water and the River Murray, Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation) (14:42): All metropolitan councils are, or have committed to, providing high-performing kerbside collections of waste. In order to achieve the target of 70 per cent diversion of municipal waste from landfill identified in South Australia's Waste Strategy 2011-2015, it is necessary to get food waste out of the waste bin and into the organics bin, where it will be processed into compost. Current high-performing kerbside collection systems, including fortnightly collection of green organics, achieve an average diversion rate of approximately 55 per cent from landfill. By including food waste into the green organics bin, diversion rates up to 70 per cent are achievable.

The South Australian government, through Zero Waste SA, has committed funding to help interested councils implement sustainable and efficient food organics recycling systems through the Kerbside Performance Plus Incentives program. To date, nearly $1 million has been awarded to eight councils. On 21 February 2013, I announced that up to $3 million was being made available over the next two years to support councils with household food waste recycling programs.

I understand that, in 2008-09, Zero Waste SA undertook a food waste pilot, involving 17,000 households and 10 councils across the state. Its purpose was to identify factors that contribute to the greatest diversion of food waste from landfill and incorporated a cross-section of South Australian home locations and household types.

I am advised that, during this pilot, fortnightly residual waste collections were trialled in nearly 1,500 households in Adelaide's eastern suburbs in 2009 and this, I am told, faced some resistance from ratepayers. No council was required to pilot fortnightly residual waste collection and Zero Waste did not fund the fortnightly residual waste component of the pilots. That is my advice. The primary aim was always to trial food waste collection.

However, concerns were raised by some ratepayers—and I must add that the member for Hartley in the other place (Grace Portolesi) was at the forefront of this campaign, as was, I think, the Hon. Dennis Hood. The Hon. John Darley I think was also very active in this area. Due to the actions of the local community members and the honourable members mentioned, the decision was ventilated at the highest level.

Both the public and environmental health general regulations and the Environment Protection (Waste to Resources) Policy now require, after that agitation, metropolitan councils to provide residential premises with a weekly kerbside waste and recycling collection service. In answering the question the honourable member asked me and as far as I am aware, the government has not been approached by local councils to implement a fortnightly collection. To date, I have no intention of reviewing those laws. I would suggest to local government that if they are serious about this as a step in waste recycling they should first go out and consult and convince their communities, their ratepayers, that this is something they should be lobbying for. I am in possession of a letter written by Wendy Campana of the LGA, which apparently was submitted—

The Hon. J.S.L. Dawkins: Do you know what role she holds?

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: I think she is the CEO, but I stand to be corrected on that. It is a letter she submitted to The Advertiser. I do not know whether it has been published yet, but I will quote from a few parts:

The Advertiser ran a front page story on Saturday (2/3/13) headed (on its Adelaidenow website) 'Adelaide suburban Councils push for fortnightly rubbish collection'.

This headline wrongly creates the impression that metropolitan Councils are currently seeking to implement fortnightly collections in opposition to a State regulation requiring weekly landfill collections.

This is simply not the case. The LGA is not aware of one Council considering this issue.

In response to questions submitted by [The Advertiser] reporter...the LGA advised her verbally on two occasions and via email that the issue was not currently on our agenda.

The email read in part: 'The LGA has not tested the issue with metropolitan Councils since the regulation was made (2007) and Councils have not raised the issue with the LGA as a key issue since then.'

I am not aware of any attempt to raise the issue with me and I await with eagerness any brave council that wants to take that up. My position is this: if councils want to agitate for this change they should first convince their ratepayers.