Tuesday, 29 August 2023

Waste and recycling management

Sarah MANSFIELD (Western Victoria) (17:26): (426) The action I am seeking from the Minister for Environment is to reject the proposal by Prospect Hill International to build a waste-to-energy incinerator in the suburb of Lara. Last week I attended a packed public meeting on the proposed waste incinerator in Lara. The proposed incinerator is set to be built within 1 kilometre of residential areas and will burn 400,000 tonnes of waste per year. This is despite the fact that studies have shown waste incineration is not safe, it is not clean and it is definitely not renewable.

On safety, the residents of Lara have serious concerns about the health and environmental fallout of having an incinerator near their schools and homes. The burning of waste materials such as plastic and PVC releases toxic pollutants into the air, including mercury, lead and dioxins, many of which have no safe exposure limit, and studies have indicated a range of human health impacts potentially related to exposure to pollutants resulting from waste incineration. As representatives of these communities, we must ask ourselves: are we willing to risk this given the proximity of this incinerator to communities and key farming land?

It is also not clean. Residents are perplexed that the government is choosing to burn our waste rather than build a genuinely circular economy. For decades the government have neglected waste and recycling, and now they want to burn the problem and leave the regions to deal with the mess. It is inevitable that these incinerators will end up burning recyclables, plastic and organic waste, because there is no commitment from these companies that they will separate the waste they receive. Mass incineration is a shortcut, and over the longer term it undermines investment in alternative waste management options, as these beasts need to be fed. They operate continuously and rely on a steady stream of waste. If the government genuinely want to move to a circular economy, they need to scale up current recycling and food organics measures and enforce meaningful bans on unnecessary single-use plastics and excessive packaging. Critically, they must mandate requirements for better product design and repair and recycle content.

Waste incineration is also not a source of renewable energy. It is a highly emissions-intensive process, and that is before you consider the fossil fuels and finite resources used to make all the waste that is being turned into energy. Waste incineration is a massive step in the wrong direction, and it is not good enough that our regional communities are the ones being burdened with hazardous waste facilities. It is very clear local residents have done their homework and they do not want this project to go ahead, and it is time for the government to listen.