A Submission to the Productivity Commission Draft report on Waste Management Previously Titled and Inquiry into Waste Generation and Resource Efficiency Inquiry.

From Ms Lyndall McCormack 
Member of the Zero Waste Action Group
Member of the A.T.A
Member of the A.C.F
Member of P.A.N.R
Member of the National Seniors
Delegate of the National Union of Workers Market Research Branch Sydney
Member of the Revesby Workers Club
Member of the Padstow RSL
Parishioner of Padstow Anglican church.

First of all I would like to say I notice that you have changed the title of this report mid Inquiry so that puts another degree of difficulty on community members who have an interest in this issue. I also wanted to thank you for the information you have supplied in your printed document about the state of Municipal waste nationally.

I wanted to say that years ago I attended the Commonwealth Employment Service in Lismore and they advised me that if I did volunteer work it would help me get a job. The father of my three children Mr Garry Leplaw who died in a motor bike accident and who was a Vietnam veteran. He was sprayed by agent orange and when the Vietnam veterans Association gave me the percentage of payout from the compensation negotiation  I was insulted, not with their endeavours but with the fact that the chemical has an intergenerational impact on my families genes and I therefore wanted to do volunteer work for environment groups to help reduce the environmental impacts of products on human health. As pollution is traditionally part of the Waste legislation I decided to do my volunteer work for environment groups working around the issue of waste. Sometimes my issue is ignored and I have found I am dealing with people with all different interests but as Mr Howard’s says the community represents a broad church and my group has worked together well and I thank them for there efforts here and I thank all those visionary people who have a zero carbon target and a zero waste to landfill target. I am so uplifted by their efforts and sometimes just overawed by the fact that all those people see the vision and take up the challenge.

As I not in your recommendations you don’t take the vision nor do you therefore accept the vision and if you represent the Australian Liberal government then you don’t have a set of values that some Australians have aspired to for many years and so your document in its communication to me seems to be written by double minded men and I definitely don’t agree with some of your recommendations.
I feel in the world there are many examples where their were partnerships with government environment groups and local government and industry where profits have occurred.
I believe the Global 100 don’t change their business because of a normal cost effective driver but because they have a set of values (The Global 100 Most Sustainable Corporations in the World http://global100.org/) 

I believe this report underestimates the communities understanding that we as a nation and a planet are running out o renewable resources and that most products do not at the moment even look like they have had a full lifecycle assessment done in the planning of the product and holistic management isn’t applied.  

I don’t see who you can go on with any innovations in using municipal waste nationally unless you negotiate with the National local government authority about performance partnership agreements. This is the only reference to one I could find.on my unfunded budget. http://www.epa.state.il.us/ppa/ppa-fy2003.pdf
And there are already regional strategies for local government and I dodnt see why the wheel has to be reinvented in terms of regions http://www.lga.sa.gov.au/webdata/resources/files/SELGA_-_Waste.pdf
There were regonal waste boards in NSW but they tended to complicate things
By just being another arm of competition although they did achieve some good things. http://www.lga.sa.gov.au/webdata/resources/files/East_Waste_-_Recycling.pdf
I imagine you have already taken this agreement into consideration
http://www.alga.asn.au/policy/finance/costshifting/iga/fulltext.php
if you are now talking about Management of municipal waste you might need a report from these people http://www.lgma.org.au/ The Local Government Mangers of Australia National Division.The Mangement Excellence award for an urban area went to Newcastle City in 2005 and for a rural area it went to  Liverpool plains shire Council and the award for excellence for Sustainability in Local government went to Penrith City and so I would like  you make sure you listen to what they are telling you. http://www.lgmansw.com.au/Default.asp?id=11&parentid=11#05%20Annual%20Conference

http://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/prod/parlment/committee.nsf/0/D89143B49014F9DBCA25717E0000FD61
I know Robert Verhey who works for the LGSA in Sydney and I think it was he that taught me a wise manger must trade off the price of his data collection against reducing the risk of failure and budget blowouts

I would like you to listen to all environment groups on this issue whether they be government or ENGO’s

I am not sure if you do identify some DfE opportunities in this paper for stewardship or EPR http://www.environment.gov.ab.ca/info/library/7634.pdf
But of coarse I may have missed it. Allover the world governments are writing in there reports similar to DEFRA in the UK statements like this on page 20 “Defra is committed to managing waste in a Sustainable way, optimizing recycling and reuse as well as limiting production to help the environment.” http://www.defra.gov.uk/corporate/deprep/2006/2006deptreport.pdf
Your paper should reflect the same values.

Your paper says that there is an oversupply of compost from municipal waste and some of the residue of that could be used in a UR-3R facility at Eastern Creek. It definitely says here that we need http://www.unep.or.jp/ietc/ESTdir/Pub/MSW/SP/SP4/SP4_2.asp
emphasis on compost marketability has led its development from mixed waste composting to composting of source-separated biowaste. This has had an enormous effect on compost quality far larger than policy makers imagined.
 
Elements of market development 
•	government stimulation of the compost market 
•	compost and land application standards 
•	compost use in the public sector 
•	compost as daily or final landfill cover 	
Government stimulation of the compost market. Government action to stimulate the market has been significant and has included:
•	use of compost in public works projects, including some high-profile demonstration projects in parks and gardens; 
•	giving compost away to garden centers and businesses; 
•	specifying that government contractors use compost in government-funded construction projects; 
•	requiring that nurseries supplying plantings to the government use compost; 
•	supporting the price of compost, either for a short period or in cases where such support is justified based on an analysis of overall MSWM plans or requirements; 
•	removing or modifying subsidies on chemical fertilizers that compete with compost; 
•	providing technical assistance to composting facilities on quality control; and 
•	providing free or low-cost testing of compost for its nutrient value or for suspected contaminants. 
The French Association for Energy and Environment, now called ADEME (formerly ANRED) provides nearly a textbook example of how government-supported intervention essentially created composting practice in France. The program was based on three concepts:
•	the development of new markets; 
•	a quality assurance program to farmers to encourage the use of compost; and 
•	a program of paid technical assistance to selected municipal composting technologies to improve compost operations and resulting compost quality. 
Compost and land application standards. The second critical element in sound marketing approaches is the establishment of compost and land application standards and guidelines. The European Union is far ahead of all other countries and regions in its compost standards program, which identifies three grades of compost ranging from acceptable to very high quality based on levels of heavy metals.
Land application standards connect the compost itself to its use in agriculture and allow or limit compost use on various crops. It is essential to give farmers confidence that compost is safe for use, and that they will not be penalized at a later date.
Compost use in the public sector. The successful development of compost systems to date has almost always involved heavy participation of the public sector in using compost in public works projects. This is a win-win strategy, as it tends to reduce costs and increase effectiveness of public works expenditures while illustrating the value of compost for greening and landscaping. Its effect is enhanced by signs that bring the use of compost to the attention of the public.
Compost as daily or final landfill cover. Another use of dump compost is as cover for fresh deposits of MSW, in cases where other cover material is scarce or expensive to transport to the dump. Landfill cover is an excellent use of lower quality compost or compost with large particles in it.
The use of compost as cover for landfills has been important in some places, since the compost substitutes for soil that would otherwise have to be excavated, purchased, and transported.
Compost quality control
The assurance of compost quality from within the composting and waste management system is very important for sound marketing practice.
The first element in quality control is controlling the inputs to the composting process. In industrialized countries, quality control rests upon clear and enforceable source separation protocols, combined with sound collection practice and pre-processing. In developing countries, where source separation is unlikely, manual pre-processing and post- processing is required to ensure the quality of the compost produced. Market wastes make particularly good input for composting operations.
Sound management of the composting process itself is also essential to ensuring the nutrient value of the compost. Process control, moisture control, aeration, and temperature all contribute to the biological processes.

My comment here is that on page 78 under Alternative Waste technology if there is an oversupply of compost then we have a terrible drought and this should be used to make food in any way possible on roof gardens in community gardens and for agriculture energy should be the last resort not the first.

http://www.epa.gov/recyclecity/

http://www.greentruck.com/

http://econ.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/EXTDEC/EXTRESEARCH/EXTPROGRAMS/EXTIE/NIPREXT/0,,menuPK:1909314~pagePK:64168176~piPK:64168140~theSitePK:1909289,00.html

http://www.zerowastenetwork.org/

http://www.arc.org.au/   http://www.recycleamerica.com/  

  http://www.world-wire.com/news/0606280001.html

I want a zero waste framework for efficient waste management.
Think Locally Act globally