Waste Recycling

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY (Leader of the Opposition) (14:41): Supplementary question: I asked the minister how much stockpiling of recyclable material occurs in South Australia. He did not address that question and avoided it. I can only assume he is wanting to say there is no recyclable material that is stockpiled in South Australia, or could he actually address the specific details of that question, which 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) (14:42): I did not avoid the question. The honourable member clearly was not listening. He will go back and see that I said, 'I am advised that during 2015-16 80 per cent of glass recovered in South Australia was reprocessed within our state.' Eighty per cent, Mr President.

An honourable member interjecting:

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: Yes, indeed, it is talking about glass.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: Exactly. That means that 80 per cent of glass recovered in South Australia was reprocessed within our state, so that leaves a margin of about 20 per cent that is either being processed elsewhere—and we know that the federal government will not stop issuing export permits, particularly for cathode ray tubes and computer screens, to Korea and other places, so some proportion of that extra will be going into overseas export. I have written to the federal environment minister several times now asking him to stop issuing export permits so that that glass can be kept within Australia, and hopefully treated at Nyrstar.

As I said, the prospects are they can take the whole of glass recycling of those sorts of glass products from the whole country when they are up and running at full capacity. There will also be glass that is being taken over state boundaries into Victoria for industrial purposes. I do not have those specific details, but what I did tell the chamber and the Hon. Mr Ridgway is that 80 per cent of glass recovered in South Australia was reprocessed within our state.