Editor’ s Note //
Australia heads to the polls
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AS election fever swept the nation in July- at press time Bill Shorten had conceded defeat for the Labor Party and the Coalition had reportedly secured 76 seats to Labor’ s 69 seats- the Waste Management Association of Australia( WMAA) and the Australian Council of Recycling called on all parties to improve portfolio coordination and take positive steps to increase recycling, amongst other things.
So far, only The Greens and Labor have responded to WMAA’ s position paper, with the former agreeing that national leadership was required in a number of areas. Meanwhile, Labor said it supported improved inter-departmental links.
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With the federal elections now done and dusted, we turn our attention to the Northern Territory where Territorians will head to the polls on August 26.
Waste Recycling Industry Association, Northern Territory( WRINT) has released five industry plans in a bid to reform NT’ s waste management performance and executive officer Rick Ralph says the association is preparing a manifesto for political parties to respond to, which WRINT will hold them accountable to. More on page 28.
Over in Victoria, Sustainability Victoria is keen to work with industry players to meet Victoria’ s“ huge” appetite for recycling while striking a balance between
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what’ s good for the environment and what makes economic sense.
On page 19, SV CEO Stan Krpan details how the government can play a key role in stimulating markets through research and development projects, procurement, and product stewardship.
In this issue, Inside Waste also takes a closer look at the scrap metal recycling sector. There are certainly challenges in the market, largely due to the fall in scrap metal prices and the oversupply of steel, but how tough are recyclers doing it at the moment?
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Simon Yeo, Flickr CC.
It appears mid-tier recyclers who continue to invest in their business while running a tight ship will weather the storm. Additionally, there are opportunities to be had. More on page 22.
And it’ s once again time for the annual Australasian Waste and Recycling Expo( AWRE), which will be held in Sydney on August 10 and 11.
All the highlights, stories and exhibitor details can be found on page 80 to 49... you know the drill, flip the magazine around for the AWRE show guide!
We hope you enjoy the issue and look forward to seeing you at AWRE.
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Australia’ s recycling rate“ embarrassing”: ACOR
MORE election news – the Australian Council of Recycling( ACOR) has called on all parties that contested the July 2 federal election to take positive steps to increase the country’ s“ internationally embarrassing recycling rate”.
Pointing to a 2013 report by the OECD, ACOR CEO Grant Musgrove said Australia was losing the recycling race. Despite being one of the richest countries in the world, the country ranked 13th in terms of recycling.
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“ Australia is losing the recycling race. This is despite being one of the richest countries in the world and having one of the worst rates of waste generation,” Musgrove said.
“ Logically, we should have one of the highest recycling rates in the world.”
And despite our poor performance, Musgrove questioned why no political party had so much as mentioned waste and recycling as part of their environment platform in this election campaign.
“ We have an extraordinary disconnect between community expectations and government action. The community supports recycling but our national government is failing to take positive actions,” Musgrove said.
He also pointed to the National Waste Policy, which provides a framework for Australia’ s waste management till 2020 and comprises 16 actions under six key directions, saying“ progress against these directions has slowed to almost a complete halt since the strategy was agreed to in 2010 by the Commonwealth and all states and territories.”
ACOR has called on all parties to commit to five recommendations to improve the country’ s recycling performance:
• Parties should re-commit to the National Waste Strategy;
• Long-standing green procurement policies that were abolished by the Commonwealth by the federal government, for example the use of recycled materials such as paper and support for these markets, should be reinstated;
• Australia’ s anti-dumping regulations, such as the dumping of metals by China, should be enforced;
• The National Television and Computer Recycling Scheme’ s target of 50 % should be increased to 70 % or a scheme under the Product Stewardship Act should be mandated; and
• A mandatory product stewardship scheme for tyres, batteries, and fluorescent lights should be introduced.
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Editor: Jacqueline Ong( jacqueline. ong @ mayfam. net) Advertising: Alastair Bryers( alastair. bryers @ mayfam. net or 0431 730 886) Production Manager: Mata Henry Creative Director, Patterntwo Creative Studio: Toni Middendorf Published by Mayfam Media Phone:( 02) 9267 1166 Web: www. insidewaste. com. au
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