FACTSHEET – JURISDICTIONAL WASTE PROFILES

NEW SOUTH WALES (NSW)

Policy framework

Legislation

The NSW Environment Protection Authority (NSW EPA) was established on 29 February 2012 and assumed waste management responsibilities previously administered by the Office of Environment and Heritage.

The key legislative elements that govern waste management in NSW are:

The Protection of the Environment Operations Act 1997 (POEO Act) and associated regulations work to minimise the impact of waste on the environment and human health. This legislative framework establishes the Waste and Environment Levy, licensing requirements for waste facilities and activities, offences for illegal dumping as well as littering. It also provides a mechanism for recognising genuine resource recovery through exemptions that allow certain waste-derived materials to be used on land and for fuel.

The Waste Avoidance and Resource Recovery Act 2001 promotes waste avoidance and resource recovery through the development of strategies and programs. Objectives include encouraging the most efficient use of resources and reducing environmental harm. The framework to meet this challenge is embodied in the NSW Waste Avoidance and Resource Recovery Strategy (WARR Strategy), required under the Act. First introduced in 2003, the WARR Strategy guides the setting of priorities and focus areas for industry, councils, and the broader community.

In 2007, the strategy was reviewed and updated with the release of NSW Waste Avoidance and Resource Recovery Strategy 2007. The 2007 Strategy is currently under review and a draft strategy was released for public comment in October 2013.

Policies/strategies

A wide range of NSW government policies and programs support progress towards the NSW Waste Avoidance and Resource Recovery Strategy objectives. These programs are delivered by working with businesses, households, councils and within Government departments to improve waste practices and to promote more sustainable behaviours.

Waste Avoidance & Resource Recovery Strategy 2007 The objectives of the 2007 WARR Strategy are to provide a framework for reducing waste generation, improving the efficient use of resources and reducing litter and illegal dumping while supporting improved environmental outcomes. The strategy sets waste avoidance and resource recovery goals and targets for 2014. (Details under NSW waste diversion targets).

NSW 2021-A Plan to Make NSW Number One (NSW 2021), released in September 2011, is the Government’s 10-year strategic plan that sets priorities for action and guides policy direction. It commits to achieving the 2007 WARR Strategy’s waste recycling targets and sets further goals for litter, illegal dumping and establishment of community drop-off centres for problematic wastes (Goals 22 and 23).

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National Waste Reporting 2013

Waste Levy in NSW and Waste Less Recycle More funding initiative.The waste and environment levy is the NSW Government’s primary economic instrument to drive waste avoidance and resource recovery. In 2012 the NSW Government commissioned the first independent review of the levy since its inception in 1971. The review examined the effectiveness of the levy across different waste streams, its impact on households and funding arrangements available to local councils for waste initiatives, programs and infrastructure.

In response to the outcomes of the review, in early 2013 the NSW Government announced the largest waste and resource recovery funding package in Australia to stimulate investment in infrastructure, help achieve NSW’s recycling targets and combat illegal dumping and littering.

The $465.7 million Waste Less, Recycle More initiative, funded from waste levy revenue, sets out funding for a strategic approach to waste and recycling over a five year period to 2017. (More information on funding infrastructure can be found under NSW’s Landfills, Alternative Waste Treatment and recycling facilities).

An important policy step to maximise resource efficiency in NSW is the Draft NSW Energy from Waste Policy Statement that was released for comment in March 2013. The policy would require a specified level of recycling to be achieved before residual waste can be sent to an energy recovery facility, so as not to undermine recycling efforts.

Waste diversion targets

The NSW Waste Avoidance & Resource Recovery Strategy 2007 sets targets for recycling from the three waste streams – municipal solid waste, commercial and industrial waste, and construction and demolition waste. Separate diversion from landfill targets are not set, given that recycling is the only existing pathway for diversion from landfill that is measurable. An overall figure for diversion of waste from landfill in NSW is calculated, based on recycling rates, but is not a specified NSW target.

The recycling targets set for the three waste sectors drive significant improvements in this area. The current recycling targets, to be achieved by 2014, are outlined in Table 5.3a.

Progress towards achieving the targets in the WARR Strategy is reported every two years. The most recent data, from 2010–11, shows that NSW continues to make good progress towards meeting these targets.

Table 1 Progress in meeting the NSW 2014 recycling targets by waste stream and overall diversion of waste from landfill from 2002–03 to 2010–11

Recycling by waste stream 2002–03 2004–05 2006–07 2008–09 2010–11

2014 recycling targets*

Municipal 30% 33% 38% 44% 52% 66%Commercial & Industrial 34% 38% 44% 52% 57% 63%

Construction & Demolition 64% 62% 67% 73% 75% 76%

Overall % of waste diverted from landfill**

45% 46% 52% 59% 63% –

* Set in NSW Waste Avoidance and Resource Recovery Strategy 2003** Diversion is through recycling alone

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Levies

The waste levy is the NSW Government’s primary economic instrument to drive waste avoidance and resource recovery. The levy has been fundamental in making resource recovery operations an increasingly viable and competitive alternative to disposal.

Table 2 below sets out the scheduled levy rates across the three leviable regions in NSW.

Table 2 NSW scheduled rates

Levy rates $/T 2012-13 2013-14 2014-15 2015-16 2016-17

Sydney Metropolitan Area  $95.20  $107.80  $115.20  $125.20  $125.20

Extended Regulated Area  $93.00 $107.80  $115.20  $125.20  $125.20

Regional Regulated Area  $42.40  $53.70  $62.40  $72.40  $72.40

Note: The levy rates include the legislated annual increase, however rates from 2014-15 will also be adjusted for CPI closer to the date.

NSW also administers a waste levy on trackable liquid waste and coal washery rejects received at a scheduled waste facility within the State.

1. In 2013-14 the trackable liquid waste levy rate is $68.30.

2. In 2013-14 the coal washery rejects levy rate is $16.60.

Classification trees

Figure 1 NSW waste classification system

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Infrastructure

In 2011, waste management infrastructure in NSW was identified to consist of:

- 287 recycling facilities made up of:

o 166 transfer stations

o 25 resource recovery facilities

o 57 organics processing facilities

o 34 materials recovery facilities

o five municipal solid waste processing facilities.

- 322 landfills

The ten largest operating landfill facilities for NSW are shown in Table 3 and the locations of other major landfills are provided in Table 4. This information was provided by the NSW government and updates information provided in the National Waste Report 2010. More information on licensed landfill sites in NSW can be found at http://www.epa.nsw.gov.au/prpoeoapp/.

Table 3 Major landfills in NSW

Facility Name EPA Licence NumberButtonderry Waste Management Facility 5955

Eastern Creek Waste Management Centre 5272

Elizabeth Drive Landfill Facility 4068

Erskine Park Landfill 4865

Horsley Park Waste Management Facility 11584

HTT Huntley Heritage Pty Ltd 10997

Lucas Heights Waste and Recycling Centre 5065

Marsden Park Landfill 11497

Summerhill Waste Management Facility 5897

Woodlawn Landfill 11436

Genesis Facility 13426

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Table 4 Additional landfills in NSW- details

Entity and location Name

Albury City Council, Albury Albury Waste Management Centre

Blue Mountains City Council, Katoomba Katoomba Waste Management Facility

Dubbo City Council, Dubbo Whylandra Waste Disposal Depot

Mid-Western Regional Council, Mudgee Mudgee Waste Facility

SITA Australia Pty Ltd, Kemps Creek Elizabeth Drive Landfill

SITA Australia Pty Ltd, Port Stephens Newline Road Landfill

Snowy River Shire Council Jindabyne Regional Waste Management Facility

Tamworth Regional Council, Tamworth Forest Road Landfill

Blue Mountains City Council, Blaxland Blaxland Waste Management Facility

Tweed Shire Council, Murwillumbah Stotts Creek Landfill

Veolia Environmental Services (Australia) Pty Ltd, Horsley Park

Horsley Park Waste Management Facility

Veolia Environmental Services (Australia) Pty Ltd, Tarago

Woodlawn Landfill

Kimbriki Environmental Enterprises Pty Ltd, Dee Why

Kimbriki Resource Recovery Centre

Waste Assets Management Corporation, Parramatta

Belrose Waste and Recycling Centre

SITA Australia Pty Ltd Lucas Heights Waste Management and Recycling Centre

SITA Australia Pty Ltd Jacks Gully Waste and Recycling Centre

Waste Assets Management Corporation, Parramatta

Eastern Creek Waste Management Centre

An independent report commissioned by the EPA in 2011 considered the requirements to increase resource recovery above current rates, with a particular focus on infrastructure. It reported that there would be insufficient operational capacity, as well as constructed or planned capacity, to meet the 2014 targets for the MSW and C&I waste streams set in the 2007 WARR Strategy.

To help reach the 2014 recycling targets, the study found that NSW requires up to 16 new organics processing facilities, 13 upgraded organics processing facilities, two new mixed waste processing facilities and 10 material recovery facilities for domestic waste. It also concluded that for C&I waste, NSW requires the establishment of up to 28 sorting facilities in the Sydney Metropolitan Area and 14 sorting facilities outside Sydney (in the Extended Regulated Area and Regional Regulated Area).

The Waste Levy Review conducted in 2012 further confirmed the need for additional or upgraded infrastructure to meet the growing generation of waste in NSW. As a consequence the NSW Government announced the Waste Less Recycle More initiative which addresses these identified needs.

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A significant part of the Waste Less Recycle More funding initiative is a new Waste and Recycling Infrastructure package. It commits $250 million over five years to June 2017 for targeted but wide-ranging funding that includes new large-scale waste and recycling infrastructure, support for communities that pay the waste levy, recycling facility upgrades, drop-off centres for problem wastes, food and garden organics collection and processing, and recycling innovation, as well as support for businesses to increase recycling on site.

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Waste and recycling data1

Per capita waste generation and resource recovery rate

In 2010–11, 2.4 tonnes of waste was generated per capita in NSW (see Figure 2), the third highest of Australian jurisdictions. This is consistent with the pattern of greater levels of waste per capita where incomes and urbanisation are high. The state’s large secondary and tertiary industry base is also likely to have influenced this figure.

Figure 2 Per capita waste generation by management by jurisdiction, 2010–11

NSW also had Australia’s third highest resource recovery rate at around 65 per cent, which is five percentage points above the national average. This reflects:

- a well-developed resource recovery infrastructure including significant capacity to process residual MSW through AWT facilities and a well-established organics recycling industry

- the highest landfill levy for MSW in Australia

- scarcity of landfill space in the Sydney area

- established policy directions to increase resource recovery, including targets.

Total waste generated

Total waste generation in NSW in 2010–11 was around 17 megatonnes (millions of tonnes or Mt) excluding fly ash (22 Mt including fly ash), which is the highest in Australia (see Figure 3). This corresponds with NSW having the highest population and GSP2 in Australia. NSW generated 4.5 Mt of fly ash, which is around 35 per cent of Australia’s total and is due to a high dependence on coal-fired power.

1 The content for this section is taken from Waste generation and resource recovery in Australia, chapter 7.2 The Australian Bureau of Statistics defines GSP as the total sum of exports of goods and services from a state net of the total sum of imports of goods and services. – ABS Australian System of National Accounts Concepts , Sources and Methods Australia 2012 Edition 3 available from: http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/5216.0

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Figure 3 NSW total waste generation by management, 2010–11

Waste streams (municipal solid waste [MSW], commercial and industrial [C&I], construction and demolition [C&D]) by material type

Waste streams

Figure 4 NSW total waste generation by waste stream and management, 2010–11

- MSW generation was about 4.8 Mt with a resource recovery rate of 57 per cent, which is six percentage points above the Australian average. NSW is targeting a MSW of recovery rate of 66 percent by 2014.

- C&I waste generation was about 5.5 Mt with a resource recovery rate of 60 per cent, which is one percentage point above the Australian average. NSW is targeting a C&I recovery rate of 63 per cent by 2014.

- C&D waste generation was about 6.9 Mt with a resource recovery rate of 75 per cent, which is nine percentage points above the Australian average. NSW is targeting a C&D recovery rate of 76 per cent by 2014.

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The data reflects NSW’s well-established recovery infrastructure for MSW and C&D waste streams, sitting well above the national average. C&I recovery infrastructure appears to be less well established, sitting at about the national average.

See the overview on national waste stream profiles for more information on the MSW, C&I and C&D waste streams.

Material categories

In NSW the waste categories that make up the bulk of waste generation are masonry materials, fly ash, organics, metals, and paper and cardboard. The resource recovery rates are well above Australia’s average for all materials category apart from plastics, ‘other’, and hazardous categories. This suggests that plastics and ‘other’ categories contain large percentages of material that is difficult to recover or has poor end markets. The hazardous waste category is dominated by contaminated soils, suggesting treatment options are either too expensive or not readily available.

Figure 5 NSW total waste generation by material category and management, 2010–11

Trends in waste generation and management 2006–07 to 2010–11

Figure 6 shows the per capita trends in waste generation and management for the period 2006–07 to 2010–11 in NSW.

Figure 6 NSW trends in per capita waste generation and management, 2006–07 to 2010–11

Note: Graph relies on interpolation for 2007-08 and 2008-09 data

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Over the five-year period the following per capita trends are illustrated:

- waste generation in NSW has been relatively stable, increasing at about 1.6 per cent per year

- the resource recovery rate increased from 54 per cent to 65 per cent between 2006–07 and 2010–11

- recycling per capita increased significantly by 28 per cent, probably reflecting the commissioning of AWT facilities for processing residual municipal waste in Sydney

- waste used for energy production in NSW increased around 31 per cent

- waste disposal per capita in NSW decreased significantly by 19 per cent.

 Figure 7 shows the trends in total waste generation and management for the period 2006–07 to 2010–11 in NSW.

Figure 7 NSW trends in total waste generation and management, NSW 2006–07 to 2010–11

Note: Graph relies on interpolation for 2007-08 and 2008-09 data

Over the five-year period the following trends are illustrated in relation to total waste tonnages:

- waste generation increased by 12 per cent, consistent with population and GSP growth

- recycling increased significantly by 34 per cent

- energy recovery increased by about 38 per cent due to increased landfill gas recovery

- disposal decreased significantly by 15 per cent, or by three per cent per year.

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Sourcing of data

Information on policy frameworks and infrastructure were provided by the government department responsible for waste management and resource recovery in their state and territory.

Unless otherwise specified, waste generation and resource recovery data for this factsheet was sourced from Blue Environment and Randell Environmental Consulting’s Waste generation and resource recovery in Australia (2013). It is important to note that the data (from this report) will not always reconcile with publicly reported data from the states and territories. The differences in data result from differences in scope, method of compilation, and assumptions used in Waste generation and resource recovery in Australia. The workbooks provide transparency so that differences between the reported data sets can be reconciled if necessary.

Case study – Compaction equipment for the recovery of polystyrene in NSW

In 2012 the NSW Government, together with the Australian Packaging Covenant, awarded grants worth almost $1 million to 19 recycling centres across NSW. These include grants of up to $50,000 each for seven local councils, eight businesses and four not-for-profit organisations. The grants were used to purchase and operate recycling equipment for Expanded Polystyrene (EPS); the type of packaging that comes with fresh food packaging, white goods, televisions and electronic goods.

Expanded Polystyrene has been very hard to recycle; with less than 10 per cent recycled in 2011 and more than 12,000 tonnes disposed of in landfill each year. Grant recipients helped to reduce that amount by installing compactors, shredders and storage cages to recycle the EPS material so that it can be re-used in local manufacturing processes or transported to international markets.

Hot compactors shred, heat and extrude expanded plastic, creating general purpose polystyrene up to 100 times denser than the material fed into the unit. Each 15kg block of general purpose polystyrene is worth about $7.50, making it valuable enough to transport to buyers in Sydney or even overseas.

Grant recipients have provided polystyrene recycling services to local communities; in the form of either local collection services or drop-off points at well signposted recycling depots. As of 1 June 2013 grant recipients had recycled a total of 114.95 tonnes of EPS. The growing certainty of supply has now prompted one local recycler to pursue investing independently in a Sydney based extrusion and pelletising plant.

Grant recipients have shown that, while the cost of compaction and transport is generally higher than the market value of the general purpose polystyrene, the value of the landfill space means that every tonne of EPS recycled saves a landfill owner between $1500 and $2500. In addition some grant recipients have started using existing arrangements for recovered computers and televisions (e-waste) to transport EPS to a central location for compaction and increase the efficiency of recycling.

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Case study – Avoiding food waste: the Love Food Hate Waste programme in NSW

More than 1.2 million tonnes of food waste is disposed to landfill each year from NSW homes and businesses. Food is the largest component of NSW household waste, at close to 40 per cent or 800 000 tonnes per annum, and the second largest component of business waste, at 13 per cent or 400 000 tonnes per annum.

Quantitative research revealed that NSW households waste on average $1036 worth of edible food each year – at a state level, this amounts to more than $2.5 billion each year. There is significant scope for both households and businesses to avoid generating food waste in the first place. It is estimated that up to 60 per cent of food waste could be avoided.

To tackle food waste, the NSW Government has developed the Love Food Hate Waste program.  This is a campaign managed by EPA in partnership with local government authorities, community groups, education institutions and other government agencies as well as business. The program aims to raise awareness about the environmental and financial impacts of food waste in NSW and build support for actions that households and businesses can do to reduce the amount of ‘good’ food being sent to landfill. By promoting easy and practical solutions for buying, cooking and storing food, Love Food Hate Waste has been helping the NSW community to prevent food waste, save time and money and reduce our impact on the environment. 

The Love Food Hate Waste program launched in May 2010 and aims to achieve behaviour change within the community through:

1. Raising awareness about the ‘waste of good food’ and the associated environmental and economic costs;

2. Encouraging and enabling action by providing simple, easy and small changes that can be made in the home or at work and focusing on benefit driven solutions;

3. Promotion of new habits around food such as menu planning, shopping from a list, correct portions and more effective food storage techniques.

The Love Food Hate Waste program focuses on making it easier for the community not to waste food through:

1. Working directly with households and business;2. Developing clever and engaging marketing materials;3. Providing accessible help and encouragement to the target audience.

The key elements of the program include: - the Love Food Hate Waste website which acts as the key communication platform

providing background information, practical tips and recipes to avoid food waste. The most popular page features the recipes.

- the Love Food Hate Waste education grants program which provides financial support to local government and community partners to deliver local, on-ground Love Food Hate Waste (LFHW) initiatives. To date, LFHW has provided over $880,000 in funding to support 52 local education projects. Projects have included film and design competitions, live events with celebrity chefs, the development of leftover focused cookbooks, workshops and seminars.

- partnerships with government, education institutions, business and community groups to help deliver the Love Food Hate Waste campaign across NSW. To date, over 170 different organisations have formally partnered with the program and are delivering local projects within their communities.

- program resources (including research reports, brochures, posters, pull-up banners, print advertisements, a web tile, fact sheets, menu planner, spaghetti measurer, magnets, aprons) for partners to assist in delivering the program across NSW.

- promotion and attendance at large food events such as the Good Food and Wine Show and Sydney Festival to engage directly with the community.

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Quantitative evaluation research showed that community members directly exposed to the Love Food Hate Waste program reduced the amount of food they threw away by 2.1 litres, or $19.50 on average per week. That’s a saving of over $1000 per year.

Through the Waste Less, Recycle More initiative, Love Food Hate Waste will expand the reach of its messages into the community. This will involve a renewed communications strategy engaging social media, continuing the education grants program and expanded professional development and resources for program partners. For more information please visit www.lovefoodhatewaste.nsw.gov.au

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