WASTE LEVY — ENERGY RECOVERY
589. Hon Dr STEVE THOMAS to the minister representing the
Minister for Environment:
I ask this question on behalf of Hon
Tjorn Sibma, who is away on urgent parliamentary business.
I refer to work arising from the
Department of Water and Environmental Regulation's Review of the
waste levy: Consultation paper released 18 months ago. What factors are
driving the government to adopt a position that will impose a levy on waste
feedstock diverted from landfill to energy recovery?
Hon
STEPHEN DAWSON replied:
I thank the Leader of the Opposition
for asking that question on behalf of Hon Tjorn Sibma, and I thank him for
notice of the question.
The Waste avoidance and resource
recovery strategy 2030: Western Australia's waste strategy gives
preference to material recovery over energy
recovery and includes a target to recover energy only from residual waste.
Energy recovery is preferable to landfill disposal but should be applied
only to residual waste once better practice source-separation approaches have
been exhausted. Better practice source-separation approaches such as food organics and garden organics—FOGO—collection
systems promote separation of recyclable materials and organics at the
household for recovery.
The option of applying a levy to
non-residual waste supplied for energy was canvassed in the Review of the
waste levy: Consultation paper: February 2020 as a means of maximising
material recovery consistent with the target in the waste strategy. The paper
points to South Australia as another jurisdiction that has a similar approach.
There are other options to achieve this and no decisions have yet been made by
government.