Waste Elimination

Principles:

The Greens NSW believe that:

1. Governments, business and the community must work to eliminate waste and build a more circular economy.

2. Non-essential materials and products which cannot be reused, repaired or recycled must be phased out and replaced by sustainable alternatives.

3. Materials traditionally considered as waste must be redefined to maximise their potential as a resource. 

4. There must be strong regulation requiring producers to be accountable for their products as they move through the economy.

5. Products should be reusable, repairable and built to last. 

6. Clear and accurate product labelling is required to facilitate waste management and consumer choices.

7. Government is best placed to manage waste to ensure accountability, transparency and true cost accounting of waste.

8. More research and development is needed to create comprehensive and effective means by which waste can be avoided or used as a resource.

9.  Education and incentive programs are required to encourage the community to reduce consumption and waste.

10. Waste to energy is not a renewable energy source. 

Aims:

The Greens NSW will work towards:

11. Ensuring that regulation, procurement, grants, taxation and compliance provide strong incentives for industry, public sector and community to avoid the production of waste, maximise resource recovery and safely dispose of intractable waste.

12. The adoption of waste elimination targets across the NSW economy.

13. Increasing research and development to eliminate waste and maximise resource recovery.

14. Ensuring the NSW Waste Levy is wholly spent on the management of waste and other environmental projects and programs.

15. An effective legal framework that ensures products can be repaired, upgraded and reused.

16. Standardisation, common functionality, and longevity in manufactured products.

17. Requiring that recycled products or material must be exhausted before further new materials can be used in the creation of products, where environmentally beneficial.

18. Expanding product lifecycle regulations, including design, manufacturing, packaging, sales, service and recycling, particularly for electronics.

19. Extended Producer Responsibility, both physical and financial, for all hazardous and intractable waste.

20. Implementing education through all levels of government that promotes waste elimination and the circular economy.

21. Strengthening product labelling to improve awareness of product longevity, repairability and the environmental impacts associated with their consumption.

22. Improving the separation of domestic and commercial waste streams at the point of collection and creating alternatives to facilitate better sorting to deliver more easily recyclable products.

23. Ensuring that any waste that is not reused, repaired, composted or recycled is disposed of with the least damage to the environment.

24. Improving and accelerating the roll out of food and organic waste collection and composting for domestic and commercial users.

25. Effectively and sustainably dealing with waste from disasters, prioritising repair, resource recovery and waste avoidance.

26. Rebuilding after disasters using materials which are resilient, recyclable and sustainable, where possible, and with the associated higher costs supported by the government.

27. Banning waste-to-energy incineration.

Last revised December 2022