Waste and Resource Recovery Sector

The Hon. J.M. GAZZOLA (15:09): This is how you do it, Brokey. My question is to the Minister for Sustainability, Environment and Conservation. How well is South Australia diverting waste from landfill?

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER (Minister for Sustainability, Environment and Conservation, Minister for Water and the River Murray, Minister for Climate Change) (15:10): What an incredibly concise question. That is an exemplary question, and it is a lesson for Hon. Mr Brokenshire on how you should ask questions in this place, rather than writing essays and adding them into supplementaries. It is a pleasure to be able to talk about resource recovery and recycling. Our state's clean and beautiful reputation has been built in part because of our efforts to recycle more and to waste less. Of course that is a good outcome for our environment. But being clean and green is also a key to our economic growth as a state.

The reputation we have is vital in the area of our premium food and wine and tourism sectors and we're doing very well in that regard. We are now diverting 81.5 per cent of waste away from landfill. That is about 3.9 million tonnes of waste. This is very significant. It is nation leading and up there with the world's best.

A report entitled South Australia’s Recycling Activity Survey forthe 2015-16 financial year shows we are recycling more despite more waste being produced. Since 2003, the recycling rate has improved by 20 per cent while the amount of materials recovered has doubled. The value of this recovered material, I am advised, is about $203 million. That's $203 million going back into our economy and being put to a higher use rather than being dumped in landfill.

I think South Australians can be very rightly proud of our collective efforts, which means that about 1.18 million tonnes of greenhouse gases will not be released from landfill. That is the equivalent to the planting of 1.8 million trees—I do not know who does this calculation—or taking 271,900 cars off the road every year. It's the equivalent of about 15,130 terajoules of energy being saved. That is the equivalent of the average energy use of about 300,000 households or 2.7 million barrels of oil. It is the equivalent of 12,716 megalitres of water that were not used. That is equal to about 5,000 Olympic -sized swimming pools. That is just to give you an idea of the equivalence of these measures and how important they are to our environment and our economy.

But I think we can probably do better as a state. We certainly show that South Australians are up for it. Recycling is not just about improving the environment; it is also about jobs. This an example of how economic growth and protecting the environment are not mutually exclusive. I am advised that for every 10,000 tonnes of waste diverted away from landfill, this creates about 9.2 full-time jobs, compared to just 2.8 jobs if the same amount of waste did end up in landfill. That is about three times more jobs created in recycling and resource recovery than if this waste was just dumped into landfill.

The waste and resource recovery sector is one that employs nearly 5,000 South Australians and is worth about $1 billion as an industry and returns about $500 million to the state's economy. This hasn't come about by accident. It's because of steps that the government has taken over many years. We have worked with a sector and created an environment that supports growth in waste and resource recovery. From time to time, there are external factors which impact on businesses in this sector, and unfortunately we saw that in relation to a question that was asked today about plastic granulating services in Kilburn entering into voluntary liquidation.

I am advised in this case—and the honourable minister, my leader, gave a very thorough description of the situation—that PGS was impacted by business pressures, including the loss of a major interstate supplier. I understand the source stock for the PGS was in fact about 70 per cent from interstate stoppages. that was largely from industrial plastic waste. Of course, they had difficulties in sourcing that material, I am advised. At the other end, with the impending closure of Holden that is impacting the automotive supply chain right across the state, that also impacted on them because they are a major supplier, not just to Holden but also to other companies that supplied Holden.

This is an issue that is going to impact right across a number of these businesses that worked in the automotive supply part of the economy. It is an important industry. It is very sad to see the liquidation process, but we are hopeful, given that it is a viable business, that a buyer can be found who can take over that business and point it to new directions in the waste and resource recovery sector. I do hope that a buyer will move into this market because, as I said, whilst they were taking 70 per cent of their feedstock from interstate, that still is putting those resources to a higher use and avoiding them going to landfill elsewhere in the country, which I think is a useful thing for us to be able to do, if we can actually run the business efficiently.

Of course, there are growth opportunities in this sector in other areas. Commercial industrial waste plastic is a valuable commodity. There are other companies in the state that already process plastic, obviously. These include Plastic Recyclers, Trident Plastics and various others. By working together as an industry and as government and also as a community—because a lot of the initiative for recycling and reuse comes from the community itself—I am sure that we can grow the sector and improve our recycling even further.

We should be proud of celebrating, when we do very well, the firsts and the strengths of our achievements when we are leading the country. Of course, there is also the celebration we have had noting that this is the 40^th anniversary of the Dunstan Labor government's nation-leading container deposit scheme, which is now finally, after 40 long years, being replicated around the nation. I understand it was a bipartisan position taken in the last election in New South Wales by both the Labor Party and the Liberal Party, and I expect it to be introduced there soon. I understand the ACT will fit in with the New South Wales scheme—that makes obvious sense for them. I also understand that Western Australia and Queensland are moving to introduce similar schemes.

The NT, of course, put it in a few years ago, after some terrible fights with the beverage industry, which took them to the High Court. The beverage container industry won that, and we had to help the Northern Territory to get exemption through federal processes, which South Australia has had for many, many years. So, that fight has been won. It was bitterly contested, but I think the beverage container industry has now decided that their best interests lie in supporting the community's interests in assisting and helping in terms of resource recovery and recycling, and that's a good thing.

This government is very keen to build on this proud legacy we have. We have improved recycling since taking off, as a course. My former leader was instrumental in introducing a ban on lightweight plastic bags, to her eternal credit. That is another reform that is now being replicated right across the country. The Hon. Gail Gago's leadership in this area will now find resounding support in other states and territories in South Australia. Again, this is a great example of her leadership in this area, and I am very proud to follow in her footsteps in this.

We don't just talk about protecting the environment, we do it. We do it whilst we can grow jobs, grow our economy and involve ourselves in further embedding the principles of the circular economy into our existing industry.