Greens want zero waste by 2020

BY EMMA KEMP

The Greens aim to outdo the State Government’s “waste to recovery” program with a policy that would see 80 per cent of household waste reprocessed by 2013.
Even more ambitious is the Greens’ long-term target of sending no waste to landfill by 2020, through the introduction of alternative technology to process waste.
Currently, 71 per cent of the city’s waste is dumped in landfill, something Greens Councillor Chris Harris said is “totally unsustainable”.
“The State Government has set the target that is meant to be reached by 2014, but as you can see we are nowhere near on track to achieve it,” Cr Harris said. “The city’s performance over the past 12 months was an increase of only one per cent, so that we are now at 29 per cent ‘ not even half the target. There is no push and no sense of urgency and this is a very significant problem.”
The Greens have proposed to work with Leichhardt, Marrickville, Woollahra and Waverley councils to find a suitable site on which to develop communal facilities to process waste.
Cr Harris said he has consulted Greens councillors from each of the surrounding areas, and the concept has been greeted with enthusiasm. 
Newly elected Mayor of Marrickville and Greens councillor, Peter Olive, said he is supportive of the policy and reiterated that it was imperative these facilities be located around groups of councils to minimise the distance travelled by collection trucks.
“If you want to get the maximum benefits you do have to have somewhere reasonably central and local. Once you take the transport costs out of it, then you start to really get benefits,” Mr Olive said.
“I think there’s a great opportunity in the area surrounding the City of Sydney for us to really start pushing the envelope on alternative waste technologies, because that is the new way forward to dealing with our domestic and even commercial waste in the inner city and the surrounding council areas.”
Lord Mayor Moore’s Sustainable Sydney 2030 policy document cites the potential for councils to work together in finding a suitable “waste transfer station and digestion site”, but only aims to collect and convert 50 per cent of waste to electricity or green gas by 2030.
Mr Olive said the State Government is lagging behind on the issue of waste management and should be taking a stronger lead.
“They seem to be waiting for other state governments to do something,” Mr Olive said. “Traditionally waste, and recycling and garbage has been a council area. I would certainly like to see the State Government take a stronger lead and get higher levels of recycling going.”