54
SUSTAINABILITY
“This is a structural shift
that needs to happen at the
highest level. Policy makers
in Australia aren’t ready.”
Companies can innovate, but a real transition
to a circular economy requires a structural
shift that must be supported by policy makers.
Taxes need to shift from labour to resource use.
Investments need to be made in technologies
and infrastructure to facilitate the effective
cycling of products, components and materials.
Banks need to rethink the way they finance
business models that move away from selling
widgets to providing service models, and
insurers need to rethink how they underwrite
different types of (co)ownership.
Is Australia as mature as Europe on this front?
Probably not. But in certain areas government
and industry are working together to lay the
foundations of a future circular economy.
Take the management of electrical and
electronic equipment waste – or e-waste.
European countries have implemented
extended producer responsibility schemes
for over ten years, where manufacturers
of an electrical or electronic device bear
responsibility for that product beyond the
initial sale. For me in France, it meant that
I paid a small, but visible, contribution to
managing e-waste whenever I bought electrical
products from a mobile phone to a fridge. It
also made it easy to recycle – I could drop
off small electrical items at any supermarket
or electrical goods store, or if I had a fridge
delivered they would pick up the old one.
Whilst it doesn’t cover as many product
categories, the National Television and
Computer Recycling scheme was established
in 2011 to provide Australian householders and
small business with access to industry. In 201213 almost 30% of televisions and computers
reaching their end of life were recycled through
over 600 collection points. The following
year they hit 40% through over 800 collection
points. Whilst there is still a long way to go
to hit the 80% target by 2021-22, the success
of the scheme so far shows that we are more
than capable of developing the recycling and
logistics infrastructure required for a whole
value chain.
GOVLINK » ISSUE 3 2016
“Australia’s population is too remote.”
Managing “waste” materials certainly is a challenge in regional
Australia. There were a bunch of people responsible for waste
management in remote councils at the South Australian
Waste conference in September who were keen to share their
perspective.
Two examples gave me hope.
One district council has saved thousands off their waste
management bills by setting up local composting facilities.
Taking the green and food waste out of the residual fraction
greatly reduced the tonnages being trucked hundreds of
kilometres to landfill, and the compost provides valuable
organic material for local farms.
The second was from the Western Australian Local Government
Association who has developed “Better Practice Reuse Shop
Guidelines” (http://www.wastenet.net.au/better-practicereuse-shop-guidelines.aspx) to help local governments develop