Question Time

Waste Recycling

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY (Leader of the Opposition) (14:32): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Sustainability, Environment and Conservation a question about recycling.

Leave granted.

An honourable member interjecting:

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: Recycling, a bit like what is happening on your—the number one ticket holder, Lisa Vlahos, who will be recycled into here. Minister, last night's Four Corners program revealed how contractors are undermining Australia's waste industry through—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: Maybe the Hon. Mr Malinauskas will be recycled to the seat Croydon. Anyway, I'm getting distracted, Mr President. Last night's Four Corners program revealed how contractors are undermining Australia's waste industry through shifting rubbish interstate to avoid paying landfill levies. The program exposed an organised network of waste transporting and freighting companies sending waste by road and rail to Queensland to avoid the New South Wales landfill levy. The program also revealed how thousands of tonnes of glass have been stockpiled and landfilled instead of being recycled. My question to the minister is: how much stockpiling of recyclable material occurs in South Australia?

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER (Minister for Sustainability, Environment and Conservation, Minister for Water and the River Murray, Minister for Climate Change) (14:33): I would like to thank the honourable member for his most important question; it is an unusual break in custom and practice in this place for the Hon. Mr Ridgway. But what was aired on the ABC's Four Corners program was indeed disturbing and worrying. I am very pleased that the honourable member was informed enough by the program to actually want to come and ask a question of us. The allegations, of course, relate to the situation in the Eastern States.

Our state has for a long time in these areas of waste recycling and management of waste been very different. Our industry is different and our culture, obviously, is completely different, having been the state to have container deposit legislation in place for the last 40 years. Recycling is very important to our South Australian community, as also is reuse. This culture in our state hasn't happened overnight. It has been achieved by government action, industry action, community leadership and particularly through KESAB and other not-for-profit organisations.

I am advised that the Queensland Premier has sought a very urgent meeting with her New South Wales counterpart about some of the allegations that were raised. They go really to the heart of this question of regulation, and it's a warning about the headlong pursuits of, particularly, conservative parties here and overseas about deregulation. It is very clear that some of the most confronting allegations arise, I believe, because of the failed policies of the former Campbell Newman Queensland government, where he actually removed the waste levy in Queensland. He actually took away that regulation of the waste industries in Queensland, removed the waste levy, and, as a result, created the incentive to shift waste across the border with New South Wales and into Queensland.

Of course, when you take your hands off the wheel like that, when you have this blind faith that the industry will do the right thing, and deregulate all of the important regulations that keep our community safe, this is where you end up. He created this perverse situation where Queensland has become the dumping ground of New South Wales rubbish. What the Four Corners program also showed is the failure of the commonwealth government in terms of leadership in this sector.

The Hon. J.M.A. Lensink: What? What's it got to do with them?

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: It has an awful lot to do with them, the Hon. Michelle Lensink. If you think about waste being transported across borders, of course there are commonwealth implications. Wise up. Don't continue to be the party of conservative deregulation—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: —that removes building regulations, that allows multistorey buildings to go up in flames, because you think it's good for business. That is what you are: you are the party of deregulation, and that's where we end up with bad outcomes. It's not good enough. It's not good enough for this state to have to put up with a commonwealth that doesn't want to show any leadership whatsoever on issues that cross state borders and state boundaries. We should be creating—

The Hon. D.W. Ridgway interjecting:

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: The Hon. David Ridgway should be applauding the state government in South Australia for putting in place the right incentives for waste to be reused and recycled, as, indeed, the New South Wales government did when we increased our waste levies. I am advised, in relation to some of the direct questions about glass stockpiling and recycling—

The Hon. D.W. Ridgway: One question: how much has been stockpiled?

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: I can keep going, Mr President. This is the party of deregulation, after all. They need this lesson. Understand where their headlong thrust into the regulation ultimately leads: it leads to a debacle. We have seen that from former conservative governments around this country and around the world.

I am advised that during 2015-16, about 80 per cent of glass recovered in South Australia was reprocessed in our state. It is acknowledged that interstate the value on recovered glass is quite low; however, a significant part of glass recovery in South Australia arises, of course, from our glass bottles being returned as part of our container deposit scheme.

Interstate, where they don't have our container deposit legislation, most of their glass is ground up and crushed through the normal kerbside process and it is a lower value product. On our front, our glass, which is largely recycled through container deposit legislation, is not part of that waste stream, it's not contaminated by other waste, it is of high quality, and, I am advised, is highly prized by reprocessors and glass bottle manufacturers as a source for recycled glass content. As a result, I am advised, the price for recovered glass in South Australia is around about $90 per tonne. I am told this is significantly higher than the average resource value for recovered material elsewhere of around $52 per tonne.

In contrast to several eastern states, South Australia has local glass reprocessing options available, precisely because of the government leadership over many decades in our reusable, renewable, recycling culture that we have been developing with our private stakeholders and community not-for-profits. They include Amcor in the Barossa, and OIN in Beverley. I note that some interest has been flagged in the media just this month about opening up another waste management authority in the north of our city, which will also be able to handle recycled glass.

With its own local markets for recycled glass, industry has indicated that prospects for recycled glass in South Australia are very strong and the circumstances highlight the value of promoting local circular economy opportunities in this state. Where jurisdictions have differing disposal costs for waste, it can encourage, of course, the movement of waste across state borders. I mentioned that in my opening remarks. I did say that in 2012 Queensland removed its levy on waste disposed to landfill, opening up a free-for-all.

Meanwhile, the levy rate in New South Wales has continued to increase and is currently $135.70 per tonne in Sydney. This has created a significant adverse incentive for waste facilities in New South Wales to transport waste to Queensland. I am advised there is currently no indication that general waste is being transported from South Australia to Queensland or to other states for the purpose of levy avoidance. That makes sense, of course, when you factor in the costs of transport from South Australia to those eastern states.

Specific waste types are transported interstate. We have had questions, I think, in this place from the Hon. Mark Parnell in the past about cross-border transport, but that is for specific waste where different state jurisdictions have different processing facilities that enable them to reprocess that particular sort of waste. So, we take, for example, waste from interstate where we have licensed recyclers who can dispose of that waste in a safe manner and are licensed to do so. Similarly, we send waste interstate that we cannot process locally but when there may be a super collector, say in New South Wales or Victoria, that brings together those waste streams and can safely dispose of it; for instance, in very high temperature incineration facilities.

We will have, I hope and believe, very soon a specialist facility here in Port Pirie, of course, at Nyrstar. They received over 1,200 tonnes of leaded glass from interstate, I am advised, for processing during 2015-16, and as they upgrade they will be able to lift that processing level and, I am told, will be able to take all of that sort of glass waste, that is, LED screens and cathode ray screens from computers and TVs, for the whole country. Again, transport will be an issue in terms of the cost to get it down from some of the more remote areas of the country, remote from South Australia, that is.

Sound waste transport and treatment is one of the reasons this government has announced that South Australia's waste levy will be increased in stages, from the current $87 per tonne to $103 per tonne by 2019-20. That is because it creates a resource with value. When you have a resource with value, you get better recycling outcomes. Contrast that to Queensland, where they took away the waste levy, and you have the free-for-all that was portrayed for all to see on Four Corners last night.