Metropolitan Waste and Resource Recovery Strategic Plan
Melbourne's population is growing and so is its waste - over 10 million tonnes was thrown out by Victorians in 2006-07.
The Victorian Government's approach to waste management is addressed in the Towards Zero Waste Strategy which is a call to action for all Victorians to avoid producing waste in the first place, and to maximise opportunities for materials recovery. ("Materials" is a term used instead of waste, in recognition that what we discard is more often a resource and not waste.)
Towards Zero Waste (TZW) established goals for Victoria's solid waste management and resource recovery. Its targets, to 2014, cover solid waste which is grouped into three categories - municipal (largely residential), commercial and industrial and construction and demolition.
In particular, the intentions of TZW include:
- encouraging the recovery and reuse of different materials;
- seeing Victoria become a flagship for progress in resource recovery technologies, services and infrastructure; and
- improving recycling and efficiency in resource use.
This Metropolitan Waste and Resource Recovery Strategic Plan has been developed to further deliver on key targets and intentions of TZW for metropolitan Melbourne. While the targets are for the state, action in metropolitan Melbourne is critical because it is the source of about 70 per cent of waste generated in Victoria and is home to three quarters of resource recovery and reprocessing activity.
As required under the Environment Protection Act 1970, the plan has been developed in three separate parts.
- Part 1 - The Metropolitan Plan assesses the current situation and sets the strategic framework for the management of all solid waste in metropolitan Melbourne.
- Part 2 - The Municipal Solid Waste Infrastructure Schedule sets out a schedule of existing and required infrastructure for municipal solid waste.
- Part 3 - The Metropolitan Landfill Schedule sets a schedule identifying the location and sequence for the filling and operation of landfill sites.
Extensive consultation was undertaken on the draft Plan in early 2008. This final plan reflects the feedback received, and was also revised to take account of new population figures for the State, released later in 2008.
The most recent tracking of progress for the three categories of waste shows that municipal is not progressing as well against interim targets, unlike commercial and industrial and construction and demolition which have already exceeded theirs.
Consequently, the plan has a focus on municipal waste and recommends the development of new advanced resource recovery facilities to process food and garden organic waste in particular.
Apart from reducing the need for developing new landfill sites, the focus on organics will also help reduce emissions of methane gas which is produced as organic material breaks down in landfill.
Achievement of the plan's objectives is a responsibility of all Victorians, in particular State and local government and industry.
The plan can be downloaded here.
If you would like to recieve a hard copy of the plan please contact info@sustainability.vic.gov.au.
If you would like to receive this publication in an accessible format, such as large print or audio, please telephone 136 186, 1800 122 969 (TTY), or email customer.service@dse.vic.gov.au
You can download the plan by section below.
Executive_summary (includes table of contents and introduction) (320KB)- Part_1 (201KB)
- Part_2 (301KB)
- Part_3 (156KB)
- Appendices (487KB)
Reports on modelling and life cycle analysis undertaken in the development of the draft Strategic Plan are also available here.
- Modelling and analysis of options for the Metropolitan Waste and Resource Recovery Strategic Plan (509KB)
- LCA of Waste Strategy Options (193KB)
Top | Last updated 08/05/2009