Towards Zero Waste
Launched in 2005, the Victorian Government's Towards Zero Waste Strategy is a call to action for all Victorians to minimise the amount of waste that we generate and maximise opportunities for recovering materials.
The strategy sets four statewide targets for waste reduction, resource recovery and littering, and specific targets and actions for Victoria's municipal and business sectors to deliver more sustainable use of resources by 2014. This assessment reports on Victoria's progress towards zero waste for the 2007-08 year.
Please note this report has been updated after an error was found in Figure 2: Waste generation in Victoria relative to economic and population trends 1999-00 to 2007-08. The text describing the data remains correct.
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Summary of results
- 61% of all Victoria's solid waste was recycled in 2007-08 (compared to 62% for 2006-07).
- Victoria's commercial and industrial (C&I) and construction and demolition (C&D) sectors exceeded their 2007-08 resource recovery targets by 5% and 3% respectively.
- Victoria's municipal sector fell 2% short of the 2007-08 resource recovery target of 42%.
- Meeting the target of a 1.5 million tonne reduction in total waste, compared to 'business as usual', remains a significant challenge, especially in light of Victoria's projected population growth.
Information presented in this publication may vary from year to year due to the voluntary nature of survey responses from the recycling industry. Every effort is made to ensure that the largest reprocessors (in terms of volume) are included in the survey. The impact of any changes to the data is affected not only by the response rate to the survey but more significantly by any increases or decreases in the amount of material sent to landfill which are used to calculate the proportion of material recovered. For 2007-08, a non-response by one organic reprocessor resulted in a decrease of 1% for total recovered material while the EPA landfill figures showed an increase of 2%, resulting in a 1% overall decrease in recovery rate for the state from 62% to 61%.
Top | Last updated 30/11/2009
