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Legislative Council - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2013-07-24 Daily Xml
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WASTE MANAGEMENT

The Hon. R.P. WORTLEY (14:46): My question is to the Minister for Sustainability, Environment and Conservation. Will the minister inform the chamber about the recent release of a new set of educational resources for schools to help educate young people about recycling and the reduction of waste?

The Hon. D.W. Ridgway interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: The Hon. Mr Ridgway will be recycled very soon. The minister for Minister for Sustainability, Environment and Conservation.

The Hon. D.W. Ridgway interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: You can leave any time you wish.

The Hon. D.W. Ridgway: Please, chuck me out.

The PRESIDENT: You can go if you want.

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER (Minister for Sustainability, Environment and Conservation, Minister for Water and the River Murray, Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation) (14:47): He wants to stay and listen to my answer, Mr President.

The PRESIDENT: If you don't want to be here, you can leave.

The Hon. D.W. Ridgway: I am happy to be here: you don't want me here.

The PRESIDENT: Sit there in silence, listen and become informed.

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: He is eagerly awaiting my wisdom, Mr President.

The PRESIDENT: The Minister for Sustainability, Environment and Conservation has the call.

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: Thank you, Mr President. I thank the honourable member for his most important question and his outstanding prescience in asking such a question because, strangely enough—

The Hon. D.W. Ridgway: I gave it to him last week under the wind farms, 'Ask the minister this one.'

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: Well, you could have. The honourable member is, of course, immensely committed to recycling and waste reduction—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order! I can't hear the minister.

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: The honourable member, of course, has a history in local government and of having a strong commitment to waste recycling and waste reduction, so I am not surprised that he keeps me on point in terms of recycling. This morning, I had the pleasure of attending the—

The Hon. D.W. Ridgway: Can you speak up, minister? You are mumbling and I can't hear.

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: I am sorry; I have a little cold, but I will try to speak more clearly for the Hon. Mr Ridgway's benefit. This morning, I had the pleasure of attending the Portside Christian College at Ethelton, where I launched a new set of educational resources to promote the reduction of waste and recycling for students from reception to year 9.

As I have said before in this place—and what I hope is said in this place for some time into the future—recycling and the reduction of waste is something that South Australia does particularly well. South Australia leads the nation when it comes to resource recovery. Our state's rate of waste diversion currently sits at just under 80 per cent, and every year since 2003 the amount of material being recycled or diverted from landfill has grown by roughly 8 per cent.

This puts our state amongst the world's best, and it is truly something that every South Australian can feel proud of because the fact of the matter is that we would not have been able to get here without the individual efforts of South Australians. It certainly does not mean that we should rest on our laurels, and we will not. As you know, Mr President, there are always more opportunities to reduce waste and there are always more opportunities to recycle more and find uses for items that might otherwise be discarded to landfill.

I can tell the council that in the past few months that I have been Minister for Sustainability, Environment and Conservation, one demographic of our state that understands this incredibly well is young people. Young South Australians are some of our most committed recyclers. They recycle at school, in the community and at home. This morning a number of young people told me that they were in charge of recycling at home and often promoted better and more diligent recycling practices to their parents and siblings.

The students at Portside Christian College this morning were a great example of young people learning how to change behaviours to recycle more and waste less. Collecting and recycling bread bag tags, ring pulls from cans, postage stamps, corks, paper and cardboard, reading glasses and mobile phones are all some of the projects that have been happening at Portside. I was told this morning that the cans and bottles they collected through their 10¢ refund scheme were used to help fund overseas aid projects. In fact, they have had a card for every goat or chicken that they bought to assist families and communities overseas, and those cards would have numbered somewhere in excess of 100 that they presented to me today. They have just recently purchased another goat for overseas communities with these funds.

Portside have been involved with the state government for some time as part of the Wipe Out Waste program. In fact, they were an initial launch school of this program which, since 2005, has seen schools across our state in the city and country reduce waste and increase their knowledge of waste and resource recovery.

I acknowledge the support of the college's principal, Dr Johan Griesel, and their environmental studies teacher, Ms Lee Grigg, who is also a coordinating member of the Wipe Out Waste Steering Committee. Portside Christian College and many other schools around our state, together with the state government, recognise that in order to achieve our waste diversion and recycling objectives, education is a critical factor. We need to educate the current generation, of course, but also future generations to become committed recyclers.

This new resource I launched this morning, entitled Recycle Right, follows several other education resources developed by Zero Waste SA to help the community increase their recycling efforts. Recycle Right provides for a total of 35 activities, covering students in Reception to those in year 9, and they provide many opportunities for young people to learn more about recycling in a fun and informative way. I am told that feedback from the students and teachers has been that there are a lot of fun games in the pack and, indeed, flicking through the guide I can see Recycle Right bingo which we played today in the classroom.

The Hon. G.E. Gago interjecting:

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: It was great fun. I did not win but every other child in the room did. Something else has just caught my eye. There is quite a deal of maths and science in this program. Question 5 on page 22 is: what would be the formula for finding price per serve when bulk buying when 'p' equals a price per bulk serve, 'n' equals the number of serves in a pack, and 'b' equals price for the total bulk serves? Derive the formula. I will be testing honourable members later in the chamber. You have another 40 minutes to get the right formula and I will repeat it to you later if you need the question again.

The Hon. G.E. Gago: A Golden North ice cream for the winner?

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: Well, there could be if the Hon. Ms Gago had some free samples from the previous question, we could actually make that a winning prize. I want to thank the efforts of Zero Waste, KESAB and Wipe Out Waste program staff for developing this response and I want to thank the Portside Christian College for welcoming me onto their campus. Therefore, I commend their efforts as recyclers to this chamber.

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