DRIVING THE DISCUSSION

Mike Ritchie, of MRA Consulting, explained why Victoria has a better system than NSW for waste and recycling infrastructure approvals.

THE SEVENTH AUSTRALIAN LANDFILL AND TRANSFER STATIONS CONFERENCE COVERED THE BROAD SPECTRUM OF BEST PRACTICE, INCLUDING MANAGING EMERGING CONTAMINANTS AND IMPROVED PROCUREMENT.

Landfill and transfer station innovation, design, operation, regulation and safety are paramount to the continued growth of the waste management and resource recovery sector.

It is this crucial area of operations that drove the seventh Australian Landfill and Transfer Stations conference, an event hosted by the Waste Management and Resource Recovery Association of Australia (WMRR).

Taking place at the Pullman Mercure, in Brisbane, the four-day program comprised keynote presentations from international and Australian experts, technical tours, workshops and networking opportunities.

With the Sunshine State making progress on a landfill levy and new waste strategy on the way, Queensland Government Environment Minister Leeanne Enoch officially opened the two days of presentations. She noted the groundswell of community support for effective resource recovery, highlighting the draft waste management and resource recovery strategy will set the course for a zero-waste society.

On day one, Mike Ritchie, of MRA Consulting, spoke of why the federation was failing us.

His presentation pointed out inconsistencies between the Federal Government, states and territories on areas such as landfill bans, quantified targets, levies, planning and container deposit schemes.

One point Mr Ritchie made was that NSW generally takes between two and five years for recycling and waste infrastructure approvals. This is too long for most investors, he said. Mr Ritchie pointed out that Victoria has a much better system, with construction and demolition facilities and materials recovery facilities not even needing an EPA licence. Mr Ritchie told the audience that Victoria also has the RD&D approvals pathway which allows

recyclers to start operating while they obtain their formal planning approvals, encouraging investors to go in and start up new businesses in Victoria.

Troy Uren, of Toowoomba Regional Council, explained the council’s partnership approach to procurement in local government. His efforts in the Toowoomba region have increased diversion from 30 to almost 80 per cent with no new budget, staff or programs.

“If Apple doesn’t make phones, who does?” Mr Uren asked as he opened his presentation.

He noted that Apple designs and markets phones, but they are made by another company. He said its relevance in waste management is the risk of operators relying on one single area for its business, drawing comparison to Australia’s historical reliance on the Chinese market.

Common mistakes in procurement include lack of novel planning and replicating past contracts and not knowing one’s customers, market, risk and core objectives.

To cap off day one, Matthew McCarthy, of Townsville City Council, discussed council’s approach to dealing with its flood clean-up. He said the council drew on multiple experts to support its clean-up effort, including the Australian Defence Force, CQG for kerbside collection, SUEZ for temporary transfer stations and data from Mandalay Technologies.

Mr McCarthy’s advice on how processes could be optimised in the event of another disaster were improved disaster relief funding, insurance to support resource recovery and preapproval of temporary sites.

On day two, Scott Grieco of the US engineering firm Jacobs highlighted emerging contaminants in waste management across the globe and the implications for landfilling and leachate management. He said the limitations of risk assessments of

Troy Uren asked the audience: “If Apple doesn’t make phones, who does?”

emerging contaminants were inadequate data on human health and ecosystem systems and associated uncertainties and differing interpretations of toxicological data.

According to Mr Grieco, regulators in nations such as the US and Australia take a risk-based approach, while other countries such as Canada and parts of the European Union take both a risk-based approach and precautionary action.

“A lot of the focus has been on pharmaceuticals in the environment and that necessarily isn’t an issue and I think that is because it’s the most quantifiably detected,” Mr Grieco told the audience.

He added that household chemicals comprise roughly 99 per cent of contaminants in landfill leachate.

Commenting on the success of the event, Gayle Sloan, CEO of WMRR, told Waste Management Review the 2019 conference had grown by more than 100 attendees from previous years.

“This is a technical conference aimed at practitioners in the field and with 320 delegates, it’s clear the program was a high quality one that was of interest to the industry,” Ms Sloan said.

She added that having the event in Queensland was a conscious decision, with the state reliant on landfill in the past and the conference offering an opportunity to shift the paradigm.

“Leeanne and her government are determined to do that because they see the opportunity to create three times more jobs with a resource recovery benefit,” Ms Sloan said.

She noted that landfill will always be an important role in the waste hierarchy, but it’s about achieving a best practice approach.

Ms Sloan said there was a diverse range of attendees covering councils, engineers and those involved in technical operations. However, there was a noticeable gap from regulators and said WMRR was focused on working with the regulators to show them the importance of the sector in improving environmental outcomes and jobs.

Looking at the events to come, Ms Sloan encouraged attendees to broaden their knowledge of risk management and best practice through a variety of metro and regional events, which is one of WMRR’s key strengths.

Colin Sweet, Chief Executive of the Australian Landfill Owners Association, said he met with the environment minister’s chief of staff during the conference to discuss how the Victorian model of landfill planning through its Statewide Resource Recovery and Infrastructure Plan and cascading regional plans could apply to Queensland.

Calls for QLD EPA

The independent inquiry could be similar to that of Victoria which led to a restructure of its environmental agency.

AN INDEPENDENT SURVEY OF 67 WASTE AND RECYCLING INDUSTRY

QUEENSLAND MEMBERS HAS RECOMMENDED AN INQUIRY INTO THE PERFORMANCE OF THE DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENT AND SCIENCE.

Queensland Economic Advocacy Solutions (QEAS), an independent market research firm, was commissioned to electronically survey members of Waste and Recycling Industry Queensland (WRIQ) on the performance of the waste industry regulator – the Department of Environment & Science (DES).

Responses throughout November and December 2018 were received from 67 members representing 70 per cent of the membership employing 4556 Queenslanders. The resulting QEAS Queensland Environmental Regulator Survey 2018 was produced.

The crucial repercussions of the document highlighted concerns towards the effectiveness of the Environmental Services and Regulation (ESR) Division and its ongoing relationship with the sector.

The WRIQ roadmap for ESR improvement highlights a need to improve consultation, education, set clear goals, targets and expectations and improve expertise and ESR resourcing. Other key recommendations are to offer consistent advice and improved response times and that ESR be independent of politics.

WRIQ members overwhelmingly believe Queensland’s DES and ESR responsibilities to be important. But 42 per cent disagreed or strongly disagreed that the ESR was reviewing legislation and policy and compliance frameworks well. Almost 70 per cent of respondents disagreed or strongly disagreed that ESR were taking a proportionate and consistent compliance and enforcement program and working collaboratively with government, industry and community groups.

Rick Ralph, WRIQ Chief Executive Officer, says that it’s unprecedented that 70 per cent of the industry with 45,000 employees were so universal in their scathing criticism of the regulator.

Rick says that there is a fundamental disconnect between regulators focused heavily on penalising operators. “The regulator makes the rules and that’s their policy – it’s all about enforcement. They don’t offer any solutions. When something gets too hard, they are fundamentally ineffective in understanding the economic impacts of an unregulated environment,” Rick says.

In terms of where the regulator is performing well, select WRIQ members had positive feedback on their dealings with individual officers, but singled out the systematic flaws in the regulatory strategy.

Across the board, survey respondents rated the performance of ESR as poor to average, with a n 85 per cent negative rating for problem solving, 86 per cent negative for stopping illegal dumping and 77 per cent criticising the decisions as being unsound, not evidence-based, and illogical.

The wide range of feedback segments covered consistency and confidence, drivers of actions, the Odour Busters program, resourcing and expertise, rogue operators and accountability and compliance versus education.

The Queensland Government’s Odour Busters taskforce was established to deal with nuisance odours in the Swanbank area.

The Odour Abatement Taskforce, also known as Odour Busters, was intended to operate from a local base at Redbank Plains to crack down on offensive odours and other environmental concerns in the area for 12 months in 2018.

One respondent asked why no findings had been published, with vague information on social media.

Rick says that industry and ESR need to actually commission a training program with industry so that officers understand what best practice looks like. Where complexities happen in regulation, there is a process of review to sort out the problem.

Criticism was also drawn at the ability of the regulator to conduct site audits and promote better compliance, and that inspections were part of a structured audit and compliance program rather than reactions to community sentiment.

One of the key recommendations of the report was a complete overhaul of the system for the government to act swiftly and produce an independent investigation into the current system. The goal would be to install an independent EPA, with four in five respondents indicating their support for such an agency.

According to Rick, an EPA should have an independent board.

“That authority then has clarity, purpose and a relationship with the industry and it actually works with the industry to find solutions, not just penalise,” Rick says.

“Universally where there’s been an EPA, it’s shown to be the model that actually works.”

He adds that the Victorian EPA’s modernisation showed how important it was to reinvigorate old structures with contemporary models, while stopping short of making recommendations on a Queensland structure and leaving it to an independent review.

WRIQ put a 10-point plan to the minister and is now waiting for a formal response from the director general. The 10-point plan is focused on building a commercial level playing field on how the industry is managed and non-adversarial. The plan includes that ESR establish an internal reference panel with an independent chair. It also advocates for a third-party review into ESR management and the independent review into environmental regulation.

“The environment minister has agreed to establish a working group and we have provided every Queensland minister with a copy of our report calling upon them to support the environment minister in overhauling the performance of the state’s regulator.

“Regrettably, not a single minister has acknowledged that correspondence and in terms of government engagement with its stakeholders, this lack of support is challenging for our members,” Rick says.

He says the review into ESR at DES should be conducted this year in order to prevent its politicisation in the 2020 election.

A DES spokesperson said it takes its role as Queensland’s environment regulator seriously and works closely with all industry stakeholders.

The spokesperson said that the department will take prompt enforcement action on industry members not compliant with their obligations.

“The Odour Abatement Taskforce is a twelve-month program, being undertaken to address odour and other environmental nuisance issues within the Swanbank Industrial Area.”

It said DES is undertaking a comprehensive education program to help improve compliance.

Queensland Government Environment Minister Leeanne Enoch said the DES recently underwent a restructure following machinery of government changes in 2018.

This has seen the creation of a new waste branch within the department specific to waste and resource recovery. She said the feedback from WRIQ will be considered by the department and help the government improve its stakeholder enga gement.