Recycling Activity in South Australia 2015-16

Executive Summary: Each year since 2003-04, Green Industries SA (previously Zero Waste SA) has measured recycling activity and waste disposal to landfill in South Australia (SA) to assess the State’s performance against State Waste Strategy Targets. This report presents the results from the SA Recycling Activity Survey for 2015-16, which collected the State’s recycling and landfill disposal data for this purpose. These results are presented in accordance with the National Guidelines for compiling waste and recycling data (Dept Environment and Energy, 2015).This year’s report also separately reports resource recovery by ‘material recovery’ and ‘energy recovery’, which was introduced in the 2013-14 report. The 2015-16 results are compared to the last reporting period, which was the 2013-14 financial year. No report was produced for 2014-15, although data was captured during the 2015-16 survey and analysis undertaken where possible to allow comparisons. Summary of 2015-16 results: The total resource recovery for SA was 3.91 million tonnes (see Table 1 below). This total resource recovery comprised: • 2.95 million tonnes of ‘Standard Reporting Materials’ – which includes traditionally reported material categories of metals, organics, cardboard & paper, glass, plastics, masonry, etc.; • 0.96 million tonnes of ‘Separately Reported Materials’ & Clean Fill – includes data for soil, sand, rock, rubble and fly ash materials, which can fluctuate significantly across reporting years. Total landfill disposal for SA was 0.89 million tonnes. • Approximately 13% (118,000 tonnes) of this landfill disposal was contaminated soil from construction activities, which may also be categorised as a ‘Separately Reported Material’ under the National Guidelines for compiling waste and recycling data (Dept Environment and Energy, 2015). SA therefore achieved a total diversion rate of 81.5% (of waste material diverted to resource recovery).