At its Tuesday night meeting Surf Coast Shire Council confirmed its submission to Infrastructure Victoria’s Recycling and Recovery Infrastructure – Evidence Based Report October 2019.
Council’s submission noted the need to consider waste management from the point of a waste hierarchy, namely: AVOID, REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE and DISPOSE.
“Related to this is a call for systems that encourage product stewardship,” said Cr David Bell.
“Incentives, and a united approach from all three levels of government, would be required to encourage designers, manufacturers and importers to take responsibility for the full lifecycle of products and packaging,” said Cr Bell.
Cr Bell is Council’s representative on the Local Government Forum on Waste and a government appointed Director of the Barwon South West Waste and Resource Recovery Group.
Council’s submission called for greater access to recycling and recovery facilities in regional areas.
“Government incentives could support more decentralised facilities which would reduce transport costs, avoid conflict with residential areas and provide more competition in the sector,” he said.
Cr Bell said Council’s submission called for a container deposit scheme for Victoria.
“Most other Australian states have such schemes, which have been shown to reduce litter and result in less contaminated recycling loads, leading to higher quality end products,” said Cr Bell.
Council’s submission also referred to a fourth kerbside bin and recycling of food organics.
“Surf Coast Shire Council has taken the step to introduce a fourth household bin to collect glass and we recommend this become standard practice because of the benefits to be gained from separating glass from other recyclables.
“Council is introducing a shire wide food organics recovery service next year and we strongly advocate for investment in food and garden organics processors across Victoria,” said Cr Bell.
Other points made in Surf Coast Shire Council’s submission include:
- banning of single use plastics
- review of waste and resource recovery groups
- the use of the landfill levy to improve waste and resource recovery.
