The Australian Council of Recycling (ACOR), has welcomed measures in the Queensland State Budget which herald a new era for the recycling industry in Queensland. ACOR CEO Rod Welford said, “The introduction of the Industry Waste Disposal Levy, designed to encourage recycling, and will finally enable Queensland to catch up to other States’ recycling efforts.”
The new waste levy is intended to create an incentive to reduce the amount of waste going to landfill and increase recycling rates, which is much needed as the National Waste Report indicates the Queensland lagged all states except for WA in terms of diversion of waste from landfill.
“By implementing its new Waste Reduction and Recycling Strategy 2010–2020, the Government will introduce new legislation and a suite of new initiatives designed to foster new business opportunities for recycling and discourage unnecessary waste of recoverable resources,” he said.
The Industry Waste Levy will apply from December 1st to industrial, commercial, construction, demolition and hazardous waste taken to landfill in designated areas instead of recycling.
The Budget papers estimate the levy will ultimately raise $379 million over four years, commencing 2011–12, and will be allocated to three funds:
- Waste Avoidance and Resource Efficiency Fund (WARE) - $159 million
- Local Government Sustainable Future Fund -$120 million
- Q2 Environmental Fund - $100 million
“ACOR has been working with the Government on the design of programs to be funded from the levy and on ways to ensure the Levy system gives further incentives for recycling,” Welford said.
“It is important that the revenue collected from the levy be linked to industry development initiatives. The Government, to its credit, has resisted the temptation to allocate all the levy monies into general revenue, which would reduce industry support and assistance for structural adjustment.
The estimated funding from the levy for 2011–12 is $53.9 million and will be distributed as follows:
- $35.8 million towards targeted programs to help local government, business and industry reduce the amount of waste they generate, and to encourage industry investment in recycling technologies, jobs and materials processing, particularly in regional areas
- $10 million for local governments to spend on environmental projects, focusing on better waste management facilities and practices
- $8.1 million of the remaining funds will be dedicated to priority Queensland Government environmental initiatives, including acquiring land for national parks.
The Government has also provided additional funding of $2.8 million over five years to the National Packaging Covenant, continuing Queensland’s contribution to reducing the environmental impacts of used packaging through better packaging design, manufacture and recycling.
“Industry generally supports the deferral of the starting date for the Waste Levy until 1 December 2012, to allow the recycling industry time to prepare and for Queensland businesses to continue the clean up after the recent natural disasters affecting the state,” Welford said.
To allow local governments to recover from natural disaster impacts, the Industry Waste Disposal Levy will apply from December 1st (rather than July 1st announced in the 2010-11 Budget).
Flooding in December and January, followed by Cyclone Yasi in February, are estimated to have together detracted 2¼ percentage points, or around $6 billion, from gross state product (GSP) in Queensland in 2010-11.
