Waste & Recycling
Please see the toolbar on the left for specific information on Council's
Resource Recovery & Waste Services.
Waste is a symptom of a throw away society, the result of inefficient manufacturing and consumption patterns. Much of what we currently call 'waste' is actually a ‘resource’ that can be reused or recycled.
Our (over) use of resources impacts on the whole environment. Energy is needed for extraction of raw materials eg to cut down trees. Water, energy and chemicals are used in the manufacturing process. When wastes are disposed of in landfill, they contribute to the production of greenhouse gas (eg methane from organic matter) and so contribute to global warming. When we waste food we waste the water, energy and land used to grow our food. When we send our food to landfill we waste a resource that can be used to make a rich soil conditioner that can return nutrients to our very degraded soils and avoid the need for chemical fertilisers.
The best way to minimise our waste is to practice:
Avoidance -
which
is the key component to waste elimination. By avoiding waste we save resources and decrease the amount of waste for disposal. This means products designed so they eg are non-toxic, have usable components and can be recycled. Leichhardt Council supports Extended Producer Resonsibility (EPR) which places the responsibility on the producer of the product to design for sustainability and/or provide a take-back scheme for their products.
Reusing -
equipment, furniture and containers and bottles or paper in printers etc, effectively extends the life of a product and decreases the amount of waste ending up in landfill. Leichhardt Council promotes SecondHand Saturday - a neigbourhood garage sale program in individual households to encourage reuse, rather than disposal of goods. Council also funds The Bower Reuse Referral Centre where residents can phone to get information on where to take goods for reuse/recycling.
Recycling
– which
decreases the use of virgin materials and the associated pollution from extraction and again saves waste going to landfill.
IF A PRODUCT CANNOT BE AVOIDED, RE-USED OR RECYCLED THEN IT WILL NEED TO BE DISPOSED OF IN LANDFILL.
Framework for Resource Recovery & Waste Avoidance
In 2001 the NSW Waste Avoidance and Resource Recovery Act (2001) (WARR Act) set up a waste hierarchy of:
-
avoidance of unnecessary resource use
-
resource recovery (including reuse, reprocessing, recycling and energy recovery); and
-
disposal.
Under the Act, the Department of Environment and Conservation (DEC) developed a Waste Avoidance & Resource Recovery Strategy which is a state wide document and sets the framework for waste management to the year 2014. A 66% recovery target is set for the Municipal sector i.e. waste collected from households. This means that for every 100 tonne of waste that is generated, we need to reuse or recycle 66 tonnes.
NSW Waste Avoidance and Resource Recovery Strategy (2007)
Waste Avoidance & Resource Recovery Strategy - 279 KB
Industry, governments and the community alike must seek out alternatives to waste disposal wherever possible. Waste minimisation is designed to promote ecologically sustainable development - by requiring more efficient use of scarce natural resources and minimisation of the environmental impacts of waste disposal.
Leichhardt Council’s services and programs aim to provide information and opportunity for residents to avoid, reuse and recycle, that will maximise the use of resources (and reduce the impacts of their overuse on the environment) and reduce the generation of waste.
Please see the toolbar on the left for specific information on Council's Resource Recovery & Waste Services.