Tuesday, 22 February 2022

Waste and recycling management

Mr HAYES (Southern Metropolitan) (12:52): Last week I received some interesting research from the Parliamentary Budget Office on strengthening end markets for recycled materials, looking at recycling policies in Victoria and other jurisdictions. I am concerned that, despite Victoria’s Infrastructure Strategy 2021–2051 and a national action plan which identified that the Victorian government should explicitly require public sector use of recycled materials by 2021, the PBO found no indication that any of these requirements had been achieved. Consistent with that, they found no information that any procurement targets had been established either.

The Victorian government announced a Recycled First policy in 2020, but this framework is voluntary and allows contractors and departments to dictate their own terms of reference. It does not set minimum targets or mandates for procurement procedures which call for recycled versus non-recycled quoting options. This light-touch regulation and set-and-forget approach by government are setting the system up to fail. Infrastructure Victoria has recommended that the government strengthen its policy to preference recycled materials, particularly in construction and transport infrastructure projects. The government must begin to use its purchasing power to create markets for recycled content. The environment will benefit from the adoption of sustainable procurement practices.