South Australia's Waste Strategy background paper 2005-10

Preface: In 1992, the Australian and New Zealand Environment and Conservation Council (ANZECC) endorsed the National Kerbside Recycling Strategy (National Kerbside Recycling Taskforce 1992) incorporating a set of targets to be achieved by the year 2000, which aimed for: ● a 50% reduction in the total quantity of solid waste going to landfill (based on weight per capita from the 1990 base) ● a 50% reduction in the quantity of domestic waste going to landfill (based on weight per capita from the 1990 base). Although South Australia and other interstate jurisdictions did not achieve the 50% reduction target by the year 2000, the target figure provided the impetus for continued efforts towards waste reduction and recycling. Studies commissioned by Zero Waste SA in 2004 suggest that South Australia now recycles more material than is disposed to landfill. As part of its commitment to establish a new legislative framework under which State and local government would work together to drive a new and integrated strategy for waste avoidance and reduction, waste reuse and recycling, and waste disposal, the Government established a new instrumentality, Zero Waste SA. This commitment arose from the recognition that waste management in South Australia was still fundamentally reliant upon landfill and that despite our efforts to date, we had not succeeded in meeting the national 50% reduction targets. The objective of Zero Waste SA is to promote waste management practices that, as far as possible, eliminate waste or its consignment to landfill, advance the development of resource recovery and recycling, and are based on an integrated strategy for the State. Specifically, section 18(1) of the Zero Waste SA Act 2004 requires the preparation of a Waste Strategy for the State (South Australia’s Waste Strategy). This strategy builds upon a number of previous initiatives to tackle waste at both a State and national level. It builds on the Integrated Waste Strategy for Metropolitan Adelaide 1996–2015 (the Metropolitan Strategy; Environment Protection Authority