The Greens today announced a raft of measures to improve the way waste is managed and resources are recovered in Queanbeyan-Palerang, including a trial of textile recycling and repair cafes, setting up Green Sheds and tool libraries, and turning food waste into compost for local use.
Greens candidate for QPRC, Katrina Willis, said that Queanbeyan-Palerang Regional Council’s (QPRC) new waste management strategy, adopted on 30 June, is an improvement and should reduce waste to landfill but it doesn’t meet the NSW government’s targets and could be more ambitious.
“Repairing, mending, reusing and recovering resources used to be second nature to Australians but these habits have fallen by the wayside for many of us,” Ms Willis said.
“There are also serious problems with packaging waste and plastic generally which ends up in waterways, parks, gardens and roadsides.
“Improving the way we manage waste, working harder to recover resources and re-creating a culture of reuse and repair will all help reduce waste to landfill and greenhouse emissions as well as save everyone money.”
Greens on QPRC will work to:
- Promote home composting and local processing of food waste
- Work with community groups to trial repair cafes
- Seek interest in operating Green Sheds
- Run a textile recycling trial
- Set up tool libraries
- Work with regional councils and the ACT Government to develop regional processing of recyclable materials
- Advocate for the phasing out of plastic packaging and reduce plastic litter
Further details are listed in the policy statement below.
Better waste management can cut greenhouse emissions and save money
Waste to landfill contributes to greenhouse gas emissions in Queanbeyan—Palerang Regional Council (QPRC). It is also inefficient to throw away items that can be re-used or repaired, like furniture, or material that can be re-processed, such as food waste turned into compost.
Disposing of waste in landfill is becoming increasingly expensive as reflected in QPRC’s rising waste charges and fees. These will likely continue to rise for years to come with total waste generated in QPRC forecast to grow by 70% between now and 2050.
Finding space for landfill will become increasingly challenging. There is also the lost opportunity to use the land for other purposes including re-vegetation for urban cooling and biodiversity.
Repairing, mending, reusing and recovering resources used to be second nature to Australians but these habits have fallen by the wayside for many of us.
There are also serious problems with packaging waste and plastic generally which ends up in waterways, parks and gardens.
Improving the way we manage waste, working harder to recover resources and re-creating a culture of reuse and repair will all help reduce greenhouse emissions and save money.
QPRC’s new waste management strategy adopted on 30 June 2021 includes some improvements but falls short of meeting the NSW governments’ target to divert 75% of waste from landfill. We propose several additional measures.
Turning food waste into compost
Food waste accounts for almost 20% of the council waste stream. The new waste strategy includes expanding food and other organics collection into former Queanbeyan City suburbs. We propose firstly encouraging people to compost food waste and other organic materials at their homes. Council can assist with educational resources, demonstration sites, and even bulk purchases of composting bins that can be re-sold at cost to householders.
Where it is not practical to compost at home, food waste collected through the council waste collection should be processed within the local government area for re-use including sale to the public. This can include community gardens and district farms, thereby supporting local food growing. The former Palerang council had planned to do compost locally. The expanded local government area is large enough to find a suitable site.
Reducing bulky waste
Large, or bulky, items discarded on footpaths and other public places is a major problem in parts of Queanbeyan. Items that could be repaired are left to ruin in the weather This wasteful practice can be addressed by supporting Green Shed style operations, through repair cafes which operate successfully in many Australian communities, repairing a vast range of items and promoting community groups that can use furniture to support people in need.
Greens on QPRC will initiate a trial of repair cafes in the larger town centres (Queanbeyan, Bungendore and Braidwood) working with local groups. Ideally, repair cafes will become community ventures operated by volunteers. Smaller communities can also be supported to set up repair cafes if demand exists. For example, they could be held in tandem with community markets at local halls.
We will also seek interest to set up Green Sheds in communities. These are ideal for social enterprises, providing jobs and generating local income while reducing waste to landfill.
Recycling textiles
Textiles and clothes are resource intensive to produce and a substantial amount are thrown away every year. Around 800,000 tonnes of textile, leather and rubber waste was discarded in 2018-19 in Australia, 75% of it going to landfill. A repair café can share skills to repair clothes and re-purpose them, e.g. turning old clothes into bags; knitting new items from the wool of old ones. Recycling is an option for those items that can’t be repaired or re-purposed.
Bathurst Regional Council recently ran a successful trial to recycle textiles, recycling 1,600 kg of textiles in one month. Greens on QPRC will work to initiate a trial for our communities. Technological innovation in Australia means it will soon become economical to recycle mixed fibres for new items.
Building tool libraries
Many items we need to use occasionally are expensive to own. Tool libraries lend out hand and power tools and equipment such as camping and sports gear, marquees and gardening items. People save money by borrowing rather than buying, so less items need to be produced and increasingly scarce resources can be re-directed to other uses. Tool libraries operate in a number of communities in Australia. Greens on QPRC will work to set up tool libraries in communities that want them. They could be managed by local groups including groups operating repair cafes.
Recycling reuse
The NSW government target is to increase recycling rates to 70% for household, commercial and industrial waste. The Greens support investing in education to reduce contamination of recycling collections.
Greens on QPRC will also work with regional councils and the ACT Government to develop regional reprocessing of recyclable materials. This need not be a government venture but governments and council support is needed to achieve it. Reprocessing locally has the added benefit of eliminating transport costs and greenhouse emissions from transport recyclable materials elsewhere for processing.
Eliminating plastic waste
Plastic waste continues to end up in our local waterways, parks, gardens, roadsides and streets, creating pollution and harming wildlife. While the NSW government is moving to reduce plastic use, more needs to be done to phase out plastic packaging. Greens on QPRC will use regional and state-wide forums to advocate for phasing out plastic packaging and explore ways to reduce plastic litter in our community.