The state government’s waste management board has released a discussion paper proposing a sharp increase in Western Australia’s landfill levy, which is among the lowest in the country.
THE state government’s waste management board has released a discussion paper proposing a sharp increase in Western Australia’s landfill levy, which is among the lowest in the country.
The levy is currently $3 per tonne of waste and the board has proposed that it be increased to $6/t from July 1, with further increases to about $35/t by 2020.
The board, chaired by ATA Environmental partner Noel Davies, believes the levy should be increased so that landfill prices reflect the full environmental cost of landfill.
It also wants higher pricing to encourage the diversion of waste from landfill and encourage recycling and waste avoidance.
The board said WA had the highest per capita rate of waste generation in Australia, with each person generating almost 1.4t of solid waste annually. This compares with NSW at about 0.8t and Victoria at about 1.1t.
It added that Australia was placed among the top solid waste generators within the developed world.
The current WA levy is the lowest of the four states that have a landfill levy scheme.
It raises a total of about $5 million and the board expects that revenue from higher levies would peak at about $20 million.
This is based on the assumption that the volume of waste going to landfill would decline and eventually offset the impact (on revenue) of a higher levy.
The board acknowledges that “the proposed increases in the levy will impact significantly on those industries that do not implement waste reduction programs”.
“It is for this reason that a progressive approach has been adopted to levy increases to allow industries time to review waste management practices and implement changes that will reduce the volume of waste requiring disposal to landfill.
Municipal Waste Advisory Council chairman Bruce Stephenson said he was not opposed in principle to a higher levy, but wanted to ensure the funds supported strategic waste initiatives.
The move away from landfill is being led by Perth’s regional councils, which are starting to invest in modern recycling and processing technology.
The Southern Metropolitan Regional Council has led the way, investing more than $70 million in its resource recovery facility in Canning Vale.
Plans by the Western Metropolitan Regional Council to establish an innovative waste treatment plant at Shenton Park have been delayed, but its contractor ORT is expected to proceed with the project this year after raising more money.
Mindarie Regional Council, which covers much of Perth’s northern suburbs, will be the next to head down this path.
It is currently running a tender for construction of a $100 million waste processing facility at Neerabup, north of Wanneroo, with approved bidders including GRD subsidiary Global Renewables, Leighton subsidiary Thiess and Worley Parsons.
Global Renewables has already achieved success in this field, having recently completed construction and commissioning of the Eastern Creek waste treatment plant in Sydney.
Eastern Creek is designed to process 260,000t of municipal solid waste a year through sorting, biological digestion and composting processes.
Global Renewables has also been selected to design, build, own and operate the $500 million Lancashire waste partnership project in the UK, comprising a network of three waste treatment facilities capable of processing 765,000t of municipal solid waste each year.
The company believes 250,000t facilities are the optimum size.
By comparison, the first phase of the Mindarie project will be small, with a capacity to treat up to 100,000t annually. The Mindarie Council handles about 350,000t of waste each year, most of which is sent to the Tamala Park landfill. Its aim is to divert up to 70 per cent of the waste from landfill and instead produce compost and possibly green energy.
The council chose not to establish one large facility for all of its waste in the first instance, to ensure it did not “put all of it eggs in one basket” and had an opportunity to learn.
Instead it plans a three-stage development.
Meanwhile, ORT announced last week that it has locked-in $12 million of equity funding from Perpetual Investment Manage-ment, which it expects will allow it to resume construction of its waste treatment plant at Shenton Park.
ORT’s technology is designed for relatively small treatment plants, hence the Shenton Park facility will have capacity to process about 55,000t/year.
The Waste Management Board believes its proposed increase in the landfill levy will make alternatives, like at Eastern Creek and Shenton Park, more viable.
“Examination of the model shows that many of the alternative waste treatment technologies will start to be cost competitive with landfill in the 2010-15 time frame and that, where waste is passing through transfer stations, cost competitiveness would be achieved by 2008-10,” it said in its discussion paper.
