The Tasmanian Greens believe that proper waste management is a matter of social, environmental and economic urgency.  Our current diversion rates for solid waste are half the national average and compare poorly with levels in other developed nations. Sewage spills are regular occurrences. Monitoring levels at sewage treatment plants by the regulatory agencies must be improved by better reporting and enforcement. 

The recovery and recycling sectors offer massive economic and social opportunities for Tasmania in the form of investment in new recycling processes, and regional employment growth.

We believe that those responsible for the generation of waste should be responsible for the real cost of waste management. 

Measures

State Waste Strategy: introduce a state strategy to improve the recovery, recycling, transport, handling, use, storage and disposal of waste products

Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR): legislate to mandate full EPR in Tasmania after discussion with stakeholders regarding an appropriate model; ensure that EPR involves waste producers taking full responsibility for the environmental impact of their products from design to the post-consumer stage

State Waste Levy: initiate, as soon as practicable, a waste levy as a first step to a complete EPR system so that local ratepayers do not subsidise the true costs of landfill out of the general rate base; create a State Waste Fund, quarantined from consolidated revenue, which supports research into waste management, attracts investment into resource recovery and the recycling industries, and assists local governments with diversion and landfill management

Better Sewage Management:  legislate to increase penalties for the illegal dumping of chemicals in sewerage and stormwater systems; increase the monitoring, enforcement and maximum penalties for sewage spills

Litter: introduce a public education campaign to alert the population to the current penalties for littering; increase levels of monitoring and enforcement

Container Deposit Legislation:  introduce deposit legislation for Tasmania which alters community behaviour by attributing a value to resources currently regarded as valueless waste; ensure that deposit legislation puts the financial onus for resource recovery on those who produce the waste, rather than on local ratepayers

Contaminated Sites:  audit all past and present landfill sites in Tasmania prior to establishing a register of contaminated sites; allow public access to this register as a matter of urgency 

Education: establish educational programs to inform the whole community about all areas of waste management and the necessity for positive community involvement; introduce and publicise schemes where the diversion from the solid waste stream, and sorting of items into classification, occurs at the source of the waste, principally households and businesses

Resource Recovery: promote waste as a marketable resource; mandate that resource recovery and recycling facilities be a feature of all landfill sites, minimising such sites; ensure that such facilities, whilst self funded, be paid a management fee based on materials recovered, providing extra space in landfill; fund such a scheme by a revenue stream initially sourced from a state-wide waste levy

Government: initiate a whole-of-government strategy which preferences recycled products whenever purchasing contracts are negotiated;  introduce mandatory recycling of waste products from government departments

Hazardous waste: implement more stringent standards for the storing, handling and disposal of hazardous waste; legislate against the importation, use or storage of highly toxic substances, including nuclear waste

Plastic Bags: support a ban on plastic shopping bags.