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Legislative Council - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2013-02-06 Daily Xml
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ZERO WASTE SA

The Hon. M. PARNELL (16:56): I move:

That this council—

1. Condemns the short-sighted government decision in the Mid-Year Budget Review to cut funding to Zero Waste SA; and

2. Calls on the government to:

(a) ensure that all moneys raised from the solid waste levy under the Environment Protection Act are allocated to the protection of the environment;

(b) ensure that at least 50 per cent of funds are aimed at avoiding, reducing, re-using and recycling waste in the community;

(c) develop a strategy for the allocation of existing moneys in the Waste to Resources Fund under the Zero Waste SA Act 2004 in consultation with key stakeholders including the Local Government Association; and

(d) ensure that no part of the solid waste levy is diverted to general revenue.

I want to begin my remarks on this motion by outlining ten things that Zero Waste SA does on top of its general mandate to provide assistance to residents and councils with information on recycling.

1. Zero Waste SA has supported food rescue organisations OzHarvest and Foodbank to get surplus food to South Australians in need, and it has fully funded OzHarvest's first van, which played a key role in enabling it to get up and running in South Australia. OzHarvest SA turned two years old on 17 January this year, and since it commenced operations it has attracted 250 food donors, 48 recipient agencies, 75 volunteers and many in-kind and financial sponsors that have rescued 700,000 meals' worth of good food that would have been thrown out but that has instead gone to those in need. This saves businesses money by not having to pay to collect food for landfill or compost. It also frees up budgets of charities and welfare agencies, who do not have to buy and prepare food. It also saved 210,000 kilos of food from landfill and 340 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions.

2. Zero Waste SA provides assistance to industry with recycling systems and infrastructure, and I will just list some of the organisations that have been its clients: the Adelaide Convention Centre, the Adelaide Produce Markets, Anglicare, the Jam Factory, Jurlique, ETSA (now SA Power Networks), New Castalloy, Orlando Wines, the South Australian Cricket Association, the SA Film Corporation, St Andrews Hospital, the University of Adelaide and many other companies and organisations that have received Zero Waste SA support to help them cut waste, minimise energy consumption and reduce costs.

3. Zero Waste SA has significantly increased the amount of kerbside recycling collected and therefore saved that waste from landfill. In regional South Australia $6.4 million was awarded to more than 100 projects to improve the recovery of materials from country areas under Zero Waste's regional implementation program since 2005. Funding has been provided for upgraded and new transfer stations using state-of-the-art technologies and sorting equipment.

4. Zero Waste SA has initiated or coordinated a series of ongoing free e-waste drop-off points for householders. That means that householders can ensure that their old computers and TVs are responsibly recycled, and that means recovery of valuable materials—metals, in particular—from the equipment, ensuring that they do not end up poisoning people and rivers in the developing world, which is the other model to disposing of this e-waste. I point out that I wish this scheme had been around when I last had my spring clean-up of electronic equipment from under the house where a boot load cost me $75, and I am suspicious of the skip that I put it in, as to whether it was destined for recycling. However, Zero Waste SA has led the charge and helped to coordinate much better programs today.

5. Zero Waste SA has brokered a scheme where householders can ensure that their light globes and their fluoro tubes are responsibly recycled—no other state has this program.

6. Zero Waste SA coordinates the safe collection of hazardous materials from the public. Since the Zero Waste SA Household Hazardous Waste and Farm Chemical Collection Program started in March 2004, up to October 2012 more than 1,700 tonnes of unwanted hazardous material has been collected from more than 35,000 people under this program. Some of these materials are highly toxic to humans and wildlife—for example, organochlorine pesticides such as DDT, as well as mercury-based poisons.

7. Zero Waste SA works with the EPA and councils in implementing a range of actions to support the Environment Protection Waste to Resources policy. This assistance includes guidance on the requirements for resource recovery facilities and implementing strategies to develop markets and infrastructure for recovered materials. As members would know, the Environment Protection Waste to Resources policy commenced operation on 1 September 2010 and landfill bans are being put into effect in stages over a three-year period. We already have a ban, since 2010, on some materials that pose risks to landfill; from 2011, vehicles and whitegoods were added to the list; and in 2012 electronic waste, fluorescent lighting and certain types of tyres are going to be added to the banned list. That has been a Zero Waste SA-led program.

8. Zero Waste SA has implemented the plastic bag ban. It is worth noting that since South Australia introduced this measure, the Northern Territory, ACT and Tasmania have all implemented or committed to following the South Australian path. It is estimated that there are now 400 million less plastic bags in South Australia each year.

9. Zero Waste SA provides funding to KESAB, the Local Government Association and the Waste Management Association of Australia, and has sponsored a range of events and initiatives around waste and recycling.

10. Finally—and I do point out that this is not an exhaustive list—Zero Waste SA supports resource-related research and, in particular, research at the University of South Australia. The Zero Waste SA Centre for Sustainable Design and Behaviour at the University of South Australia was established in 2008 and it is a $2 million partnership between the university and Zero Waste SA.

Zero Waste SA is internationally recognised for its leadership in this area. In relation to that link I mentioned with the University of South Australia, I would urge members to have a look at the writings of Professor Steffen Lehmann who is a professor of sustainable design and behaviour at the university. He wrote an article which was recently published online on The Conversation website with which members might be familiar. It is a website which features various academics writing about key issues of importance to the community. Professor Lehmann's article was headed 'For a truly sustainable world we need zero waste cities'. He starts his article by stating:

The current state of worldwide urban development is depressing. We are not moving towards environmentally sustainable design and reduced consumption quickly enough.

He then goes on to state:

We need to refocus on avoiding waste creation in the first place and re-think the way we design and construct products, buildings and cities to facilitate re-use and disassembly at their end of life.

This change of focus makes the concept of zero waste both powerful and controversial. From a purely economic point of view, producing waste is unproductive. But reversing the existing, wasteful business system and manufacturing practices is not a fast, easy or cheap process.

That is why I say we need agencies like Zero Waste SA. We need them to lead the charge and we need them to lead the change that we want to see and that the planet demands of us.

That brings me to the funding arrangements. Under the Zero Waste SA Act 2004, a special fund is created called the Waste to Resources Fund. Under the act it consists primarily of money derived from the solid waste levy under section 113 of the Environment Protection Act. At present the contribution is 50 per cent of that levy. That is the levy that is currently $42 per tonne in the metropolitan area and half that amount in the country. I do note, however, that there is nothing to stop the government from reducing that amount, the 50 per cent, by prescribing a different amount in the regulations. Under section 17 of the Zero Waste SA Act, the Waste to Resources fund can be applied by Zero Waste SA without further appropriation in accordance with the business plan for Zero Waste SA or in any other manner authorised by the minister for the purpose of the act.

So, it has the ability to spend the money that is allocated. But the problem we have is that it has not been spent and it has not been allocated. It has accumulated, we understand, to an amount of around $40 million, and that accumulation is during a time when the need is still pressing and the good work of previous years needs to be consolidated. Of course there can be good reasons why a levy might be accumulated over a few years rather than spent annually, and such reasons would include funding a bigger project that requires multiple years' payments, but as we understand it that is not the case here: the money has not been spent and there are no plans to spend it—at least no plans that we know of.

The money will no doubt be burning a hole in the Treasurer's pocket, and it is at serious risk of being used to offset spending elsewhere in government rather than being spent on the purposes for which it was collected. Members would appreciate that this can happen in a number of ways, not the least of which is to replace recurrent funding for agencies and programs with levy funding. I will have more to say on another occasion about the parlous state of funding for the EPA, which fits into that model as well.

Whilst it might seem that Zero Waste SA has a free hand with spending the money that is collected and accumulates in the fund, there is another provision of the act, section 4, which provides that in the exercise of its powers, functions and duties, Zero Waste SA is subject to the direction of the minister. So, if the minister decides to stockpile the money and not spend it on environmental projects, that is within the minister's power. Not spending the money simply requires Zero Waste SA to not call for projects. That means that the ideas, the plans of local government, industry, the community, to reduce waste never get off the ground. They remain as ideas, unfunded and undelivered.

Discussions I have had with members of the community indicate to me that the level of cynicism in relation to hypothecated levies such as this is growing. It is not that people do not accept these levies—I think they do, because they value the purposes for which the money is collected and on which it should be spent—but what people hate is being taken for a ride. They hate being told that money is being collected for one purpose when in fact it is not being spent on that purpose at all, or that all of it is not being spent on the proper purpose.

The Greens' response is not to call for the levy to be scrapped but to urge the government to re-establish the credibility of the scheme and either spend the money on worthwhile environmental projects—and there are hundreds of these crying out for funding—or come clean with the South Australian public about their plans.

In conclusion, members should appreciate that Zero Waste SA punches way above its weight for the small amount of funding invested in it. It delivers far more value and return on investment than it costs to run. I think it is nonsense to abolish an agency that is nationally and internationally acknowledged as being a leader in its field, especially when its expertise is being sought by emerging nations such as India. That should be a signal to us that this sector of our economy has enormous potential to grow, but it will not thrive if the government abandons the field, as it is intending to do.

There is another way: rather than abolishing Zero Waste SA the government could leverage the thinking and expertise of this agency to apply the Zero Waste ethos to its own operations. Whether it is the waste stream generated by hospitals or energy, water or resources that are wasted in all government agencies, there is plenty of scope to make savings, and Zero Waste SA is well positioned to help the government make this happen. I commend the motion to the house.

Debate adjourned on motion of Hon. T.J. Stephens.

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