Senate committee wants national waste framework

They found that there are “escalating problems created by the divergent and inconsistent approach across the country” to waste management.

The report says that the Environment Protection and Heritage Council (EPHC) should draw up a national r strategy to “seek consistent policies between the states and adopt a principles-based approach; including sustainability, the waste hierarchy, extended producer responsibility and user pays cost reflective pricing as guiding principles.”

They were particularly concerned that although there are available alternatives, too much organic material is disposed in landfill because it is cheap, even though this releases methane gas “creating an environmental liability for future generations”.

“They stated that the waste sector will continue to use the low cost option, which is often disposal in landfill…and they want environmental and social costs built into waste management pricing structures.”

It is very important to reduce the organic material going to landfill and also arrange to capture and use of landfill gas emissions,.

This comes at a time when a housing development in Victoria has the residents being told to move out of their homes because of the imminent danger of a major methane gas explosion from a nearby old landfill site.  These poor people are trying to cope with finding more accommodation while still paying their existing mortgages on their near new homes.  This is the sort of nonsense that must not be allowed to happen.  Likewise increasing methane emissions for future generations to cope with is also totally outrageous.

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This entry was posted on Monday, September 15th, 2008 at 8:00 am and is filed under Waste management. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.