Elise Archer,Minister for Environment
The Hodgman Liberal Government has today released our draft Waste Action Plan for public consultation that aims to tackle waste around Tasmania.
With a growing population and the recent restrictions of recycling product exports to China, it is important Tasmania takes a more strategic approach to the way it manages waste into the future.
Dealing with our waste is a shared responsibility between all levels of government, the private sector, and the community.
The draft Plan sets the proposed framework to address our identified priority issues, and seeks to provide a basis for our State to capture the opportunities for jobs growth and industry development here in Tasmania.
Two key proposed initiatives included in the draft Waste Action Plan are: a beverage container refund scheme; and a statewide levy on waste being dumped in landfill. This levy is proposed to replace the many council levies that already exist with funds to be focused on future waste and recycling infrastructure and programs.
The draft plan also contains a series of ambitious, but achievable, waste management, litter and recycling targets that align with targets in the recently approved ³Ô¹ÏÍøÕ¾ Waste Policy.
Other measures in the draft Waste Action Plan include:
- ensuring 100 per cent of packaging is reusable, recyclable or compostable by 2025;
- reducing waste generated in Tasmania by five per cent per person by 2025 and 10 per cent by 2030;
- achieving a 40 per cent average recovery rate from all waste streams by 2025 and 80 per cent by 2030;
- having the lowest incidence of littering in the country by 2023;
- working at the national level and with local government and businesses in Tasmania to phase out problematic and unnecessary plastics by 2030; and
- reducing the volume of organic waste sent to landfill by 25 per cent by 2025 and 50 per cent by 2030.
The process of finalising the Waste Action Plan, and then its implementation, will be done in close collaboration and partnership with local government, businesses and the Tasmanian community.
