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Summarize the Range of Waste Management Services Currently Offered by a Council of your Choice in Tasmania. Consider Their Effectiveness and Integration with Relevant Council, Regional, State and Federal Laws and Policies.
Waste management is an important aspect because it enhances the wellbeing of the environment as well as public health. Most importantly, activities related to waste diversion and avoidance contributes significantly to resource conservation. This is sustainable especially considering that the natural resource base has significantly shrunk to worrying levels. Just like the rest of the global population, inhabitants of Kingborough produce significant volumes of waste on an annual basis. Council officials concerned with waste manage assume the responsibility of managing the respective waste to avoid the negative implications that are related to environmental pollution. To enhance sustainability and optimal output, the council activities are aligned to provisions of the local, regional state and Federal laws and policies.
Waste management within the council is all inclusive comprising of a wide array of activities that range from collecting and transporting to disposing and regulating the production of waste by populations. According to the Kingborough Council (2008), council officials that are in charge of waste management use sophisticated technology in a bid to reduce pollution. The council has two main waste management facilities that are located at Main Road North Buny Island and Baretta. Ideally, sustainable waste management practices needs to begin at the point of waste generation. In this regard, the council encourages waste reduction through capacity building and awareness creation. Further, it complements this with clean production processes pertaining to reusing, recycling and recovering. In addition, it ensures that all the waste that is produced is effectively disposed off in designated land fills (Department of Environment, Parks, Heritage and the Arts, 2009). Most importantly, it ensures that the respective land fills are maintained in an effective manner in order to reduce the negative impacts that pollution can have on public health.
With regard to the specific activities that the council engages in, The Department of Environment, Parks, Heritage and the Arts (2008) indicates that it collects household garbage on a weekly basis. The main objective for this is to avoid waste accumulation that can be potentially harmful to the public and save resources employed for collecting the waste at the same time. The collection system is well equipped, comprising of automatic side loading compactor truck and wheelie bins. Besides collecting garbage, Kingborough council provides a 140 Litre mobile recycling wheelie bin on a fortnight basis (Department of Primary Industries, Water and Environment, 2005). This provides the populations with vital services that enable them to undertake waste recycling.
Locally, Southern Tasmania has an established agency that deals with waste collection and management. The South Waste Strategy Authority that is commonly referred to as SWSA comprises of twelve councils and specifically deals with solid waste management (Southern Waste Strategy Authority, 2006). To attain this, it also bases its activities and practices on the principles of clean production processes. With respect to jurisdiction, its activities and practices cover the entire Southern Tasmania. The constituent councils of SWSA have various legislations that that govern regulation and management of waste. This includes the Environmental Management and Pollution Control Act pf 1994. This addresses wide ranging issues that are related to pollution and waste management. To begin with, this act provides that council take measures to prevent or control omissions or activities that are likely to cause pollution. In addition, it empowers the council to issue Environmental Protection notices to activities, businesses or new businesses whose acts have the potential to harm the environment. The provisions of the act also govern waste production and management activities at the state level.
Another act included the Local Government Act of 1993 that deals with regulating waste management related functions and operations of the affected councils. In particular, the act underscores the rates of waste collection that the councils need to employ. In addition, section twenty of this fact provides a compressive account of the specific powers and functions of the councils regarding waste management. Finally, the act gives the councils the power to formulate and implement viable by laws to govern waste management. In this respect, Kingborough Council has formulated the Health and Environmental By-Law that governs disposal of household refuse as well as general waste management. The by law also empowers Kingborough council to give notices to persons that contravene the act as well as regulate the amount of waste that is disposed at the land fill at any given time. Other acts whose provisions directly influence waste production activities at the local level include the Public Health Act of 1997 and Pollution Control (Waste Management) Regulations of 2000 (IRIS Tasmania, 2010).
The Southern Tasmanian councils have generally demonstrated commitment to reducing and managing waste in order to enhance environmental management and resource conservation (West, 2011). After consultative meetings, they decided to implement the Nolan-ITU waste minimization strategy (Nolan-ITU PTY Ltd, SKM Economic & EnviroRIS, 2001). This has been instrumental in improving and accrediting their practices. Moreover, it helped in placing them in strategic position where they can benefit immensely from federal resources that are secured for local councils for waste management and minimization.
At the federal level, these practices are in line with the provisions of the 1999’s National Packaging Covenant (NPC). This policy was adopted by the state government, federal government, local governments and the distinguished members of Packaging supply chain. Relative provisions are informed by the fundamental principles of shared responsibility and product stewardship. Kingborough’s practices pertaining to reuse and recover are consistent with the provisions of this policy. Seemingly, its active participation in the process of recycling and reusing waste products is aimed at enhancing environmental stewardship. Basically, the covenant addresses concerns pertaining to consumer packaging as well as household paper (The National Packaging Covenant, 2007).
At this point, it is certain that Kingborough has taken extensive measures to enhance waste management and protect the wellbeing of its public health as well as conserve its natural resource base. Specific activities that the council engages in pertain to waste collection, effective disposal and recycling. The council also takes measures to reduce waste generation through awareness creation. As it has come out from the study, Kingborough’s practices, processes and activities are aligned to local, state and federal laws and policies that govern waste management and environmental protection. At the local level, it is a member of the South Waste Strategy Authority whose activities are governed by several acts such as the Environmental Management and Pollution Act of 1994, the Public Health Act of 1997 and so forth. As identified, the council has responded to the provisions of these acts accordingly. At the federal level, the council aligns it practices to the provisions of the 1999’s National Packaging Covenant.
List of References
Department of Environment, Parks, Heritage and the Arts 2009, Landfills, Retrieved January 28th 2011 from HYPERLINK “http://www.environment.tas.gov.au/index.aspx?base=376” http://www.environment.tas.gov.au/index.aspx?base=376
Department of Environment, Parks, Heritage and the Arts 2008, Tasmanian Waste and Resource Management Strategy 2008 – FINAL REVIEW DRAFT Version 7 –13 November 2008, Retrieved January 28th, 2011 from HYPERLINK “http://www.environment.tas.gov.au/file.aspx?id=4189” http://www.environment.tas.gov.au/file.aspx?id=4189.
Department of Primary Industries, Water and Environment 2005, Environmental Management and Pollution Control (Waste Management) Regulations 2000, Retrieved January 28th, 2011 from HYPERLINK “http://www.environment.tas.gov.au/file.aspx?id=1954” http://www.environment.tas.gov.au/file.aspx?id=1954
IRIS Tasmania 2010, Waste, Retrieved January 28th, 2011 from HYPERLINK “http://www.iris.tas.gov.au/infrastructure/waste” http://www.iris.tas.gov.au/infrastructure/waste.
Kingborough Council 2008, Waste Management FAQ’s, Retrieved January 28th, 2011 from HYPERLINK “http://www.kingborough.tas.gov.au/site/page.cfm?u=151” http://www.kingborough.tas.gov.au/site/page.cfm?u=151
Nolan-ITU Pty Ltd, SKM Economics & EnvirosRIS 2001, Independent Assessment of Kerbside Recycling in Australia, Retrieved January 28th, 2011from HYPERLINK “http://pca.org.au/NPC-FINAL-01.PDF” http://pca.org.au/NPC-FINAL-01.PDF
Southern Waste Strategy Authority 2006, National Waste Management Policy, Retrieved January 28th 2011, from HYPERLINK “http://files.thereafter.com.au/swsa/NationalWasteManagementPolic.pdf” http://files.thereafter.com.au/swsa/NationalWasteManagementPolic.pdf
The National Packaging Covenant 2007, National Packaging Covenant, Retrieved January 28th 2011 from HYPERLINK “http://www.packagingcovenant.org.au/page.php?name=home” http://www.packagingcovenant.org.au/page.php?name=home
West Paul 2011, Kingborough Free Green Waste Disposal Weekend, Retrieved January 28th, 2011 from, http://www.kingborough.tas.gov.au/webdata/resources/files/FreeGreenWasteJan2011.pdf
