GLOBAL OLIVINE WESTERN AUSTRALIA
20 Plowman Circle
Maylands, PERTH WA 6051
ndaffen@globalolivine.com
www.globalolivine.info
PH: 08 9375 2626
Sustainable Resource Recycling & Recovery
Inquiry into Waste Generation and Resource Efficiency
Productivity Commission
Melbourne Victoria
Attention Assistant Commissioner - Paul Belin
Sent via e-mail to waste@pc.gov.au
Dear Paul
As an industry focused on enhancing the efficiency of resource use within society, we warmly welcome the Inquiry your team is conducting. Through our development efforts in Australia we recognize that you are faced with an enormous challenge if the Inquiry is to deliver meaningful outcomes.

Waste is a multi billion dollar business in Australia that provides jobs for a wide array of private companies and public servants. The fundamental challenge to your Inquiry is that effecting meaningful change in the areas of waste generation and resource efficiency is not in the interests of the parties involved in the Waste industry.

Yet meaningful change is what is exactly what is required if society is to be spared massive increases in the costs associated with managing the waste resource. Meaningful change will also be required in policy and approach if the environment is to be spared the detrimental impacts current and most proposed systems have upon it.

As a private business with a meaningful solution in this field, there is no doubt that some will consider our views as little more than the expression of vested interests. However, our motivation is mitigation of the impact our society's waste has on the environment. We are owned by a charitable trust whose purpose is to fund the development of environmentally focused projects. Our process is one which will produce meaningful change in the waste industry and which provides solutions for all wastes.

The principles we adopted in developing our solution are those we believe the parties developing waste solutions should adopt.

•	We live in a society sustained by industry and technical solutions that allows it to live far beyond the capacity nature would allow. Reliance on none technical solutions ‘natural' to effectively manage the waste generated by this society is unrealistic.

•	Mitigation of the impact society has on our environment is critical if future generations are to be able to derive a similar level of enjoyment and quality of life.
•	Landfilling of waste resource is an anathema. It is an admission by society that it is prepared to waste a resource.
•	The environment makes no distinction between different types of waste and environmentally and economically sustainable solutions must be available for all wastes.

•	If providing a solution to one waste issue gives rise to another waste problem for which no environmentally or economically sustainable solution exists, then the solution is flawed and of limited, if any, value.

The only party with overall responsibility for the environment is central government. The only party which can require that environmentally and economically sustainable solutions are available for all wastes is central government as it is not subject to the vested interests that seem to colour so much decision making at a local government level.

Certainly, developing and legislating for such an approach will require courage. The following is a quote from a man who is beyond reproach which, under the circumstances, seems particularly appropriate.

"Problems cannot be solved by thinking within the
framework in which they were created."
Albert Einstein
We hope you will choose to think outside the framework within which you currently seem to be focused. As to where you might choose to look for inspiration, Europe is years ahead of Australasia in terms of legislating for improvements in the areas of waste generation and resource efficiency. Our societies are founded on similar principles and success is largely measured by how much we consume. As a consequence, the problems we face are similar if not so pressing.

We have attached a document that sets out what we do, why we do it, how we believe a complete solution can function and what the outcomes will be. Our process has been granted environmental approval in both Australia and England. While it is the source of much antipathy on the part of vested waste interests, it will lead to the development of truly sustainable waste management, where these interests are required to change.

Australia has demonstrated its commitment to the environment by the establishment of such things as Renewable Energy Credits to drive development in the renewable energy sector. It is time we did the same with the far more pressing issue of management of our waste.

I look forward to discussing our thoughts with you in the near future.
Yours faithfully
Norman Daffen
General Manager
0419 199 424