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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1)
2019-05-15 Daily Xml
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Waste Management

Dr HARVEY (Newland) (14:26): My question is to the Minister for Environment and Water. Can the minister update the house on what the Marshall Liberal government is doing to increase landfill diversion in the state and the positive environmental and economic benefits that will result from these improvements?

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS (Black—Minister for Environment and Water) (14:26): I thank the member for Newland for his question. He asks a pertinent question about a very important sector of South Australia's economy, one that we have a very good history of doing excellent things in. We have seen leadership and success in the waste management industry in South Australia extending back to the 1970s, when container deposit legislation came in, and there have been various policy reforms along the way that have kept us at the real cutting edge internationally of effective waste management.

One thing that we are very much focused on is continuing to reduce waste to landfill. We know that reducing waste to landfill has a very significant benefit economically because it creates jobs. In fact, for every 10,000 tonnes of waste that goes into landfill, two jobs are created, but for every 10,000 tonnes of waste that are recycled, re-used or composted, over nine jobs are created, so not only is it an economic driver for our economy but it is also a very responsible thing to be focusing on from an environmental point of view. We know that we will have very significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions that come from landfill if we don't send waste to landfill in the first place.

Many members would be aware that, following the China Sword crisis unfolding early in this government's formation in 2018, we had an assistance package for the waste sector worth just over $12 million aimed at helping businesses innovate, create jobs and, particularly, invest in new technologies that would improve South Australia's approach to waste management so that we could sort our waste in a way that resulted in more quality waste being filtered through to the recycling process and ensure that economic streams around our waste were continued.

One important thing is to make sure that we get the education right and make sure that South Australians know which bin to use. It was great to be able to work with Green Industries SA, the business unit under my portfolio, to establish the Which Bin campaign, which was launched on the weekend. This includes a website (www.whichbin.sa.gov.au), where you can go to find out just about anything. If you have any questions as to what to put in which bin, you can go onto this website and put in the question, find the item and find out whether to put it in your yellow bin, which is obviously for recycling, your green bin for green organics, or your red and/or blue bin in South Australia for general waste.

It is a really useful resource. It is going to be backed up by an education campaign which will go out to print media, social media and TV media as well. It stars Which Bin Vin—and some people may have seen Vinnie, our awkward dad character, who educates his family about what to put in which bin. So keep an eye out for Vin. Go online, visit YouTube, the Green Industries SA website or whichbin.sa.gov.au to find out about what you should be doing regarding your recycling.

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