Hikes in rubbish rates

A Sydney forum on waste management and increased garbage levies last week became heated over the issue of effective investment in the industry.

Local government, industry professionals and community members attended the consultation session on Monday, February 27 which outlined the state government’s plan to increase the Sydney Metropolitan Area’s (SMA) levy by $10 annually from its current rate of $82.20 per tonne.

According to the Office of Environment and Heritage (OEH), a higher Waste and Environment Levy is the key to “driving waste avoidance and resource recovery”.

An international specialist in water and wastewater treatment, Mervyn Goronsky, said a garbage tax would not impact current industry issues.

“The already imposed tax on solids waste management does little if anything to reduce its volume and hence does not extend the life of existing land fill operations or do anything else for that matter.”

Revenue from the levy has been heavily promised to core services such as hospitals and schools. One third of collected funds will go back into the industry to invest in environmental initiatives.

Mr Goronszy, a consultant with SFC Environmental Technologies, said: “While [I] understand the principle of ‘user (Polluter) pays’; the ‘pay’ has to be invested into alleviating the problem,” he said.

“To have a tax imposed for solids waste management and not to use it in that regard is simply a fraud.”

Mr Goronszy has worked in the waste industry since 1968 and formerly worked at the NSW Department of Public Works.

The state department’s spokesperson said improved recycling rates will lessen the amount of food in landfills. “About 50 per cent of waste going into landfills is food and organics,” she said.

The suburbs with the highest recovery rates – Penrith, Liverpool and Newcastle – use a three-bin system with one reserved for compost. According to the state government, the region’s households recycle 51 per cent of their waste.

Mr Goronszy said the separation of waste is the most difficult aspect. He said the industry’s future, which is taking off in India, involves processing waste into usable energy.

“[Waste] comes into the operation and screening then it goes into a high-pressure screw press and that then gets all the juice connected with degradables and putrescibles. That gets taken away and we use that for manufacturing gas, which has got a potential for generating electricity.”

Consultancy firm KPMG is liaising among community groups, industry and the government on the project.

Members of the public can submit feedback via an online community engagement forum on the OEH website until April 13.