Advice on recycling and resource recovery infrastructure in Victoria

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Infrastructure Victoria has published the final advice to government on recycling and resource recovery infrastructure in Victoria.

The advice includes 13 recommendations that were developed in consultation with government and stakeholders and focuses on six priority materials including plastics, paper and cardboard, glass, organics, tyres and e-waste.

Our 13 recommendations include;

1. Improve infrastructure capacity and capability for recovering and reprocessing priority materials
2. Increase the diversion of organic waste from landfills
3. Provide clarity to the waste-to-energy sector and establish regulatory settings to achieve desired waste-to-energy outcomes
4. Review funding mechanisms to increase infrastructure and capability
5. Provide ongoing statewide and locally tailored behaviour change programs
6. Reduce contamination in material streams
7. Introduce waste minimisation initiatives
8. Remove barriers and strengthen markets for priority materials
9. Ensure that producers and consumers involved in making and using products share the responsibility for their fate
10. Provide greater clarity of roles and responsibilities for Victorian Government bodies involved in recycling and resource recovery
11. Improve the quality and use of data to support resource recovery
12. Use targets to drive performance
13. Strengthen the status of, and processes around, Victoria’s Recycling Infrastructure Plan

Research shows there is no single approach to achieve these outcomes and all levels of government, business and households need to work together if we are to realise the huge opportunity.

Infrastructure Victoria also released a package of supporting reports that were used to develop the final advice. These include focus group research, material flow analysis, economic policy framework, resource recovery mapping and an infrastructure gap analysis.

Read our final advice here.

About the evidence base

Infrastructure Victoria has examined the state of the waste sector, looked at what works across the country and around the world, undertaken technical analysis and consulted with local government, industry and the community.  As a result, we have identified opportunities for investment, new processes and community action to support Victoria’s recycling and resource recovery sector. These include:

• developing a clear, overarching policy framework including recycling targets and waste-to-energy
• examining incentives and price signals for business and industry to improve their recycling performance
• supporting councils to implement consistent approaches to sorting and collection, helping to reduce contamination in household recycling collection
• separating food and garden waste from other materials to get more out of our organic waste
• better planning, locating and protecting waste management sites
• working with the Commonwealth and other states to increase consistency and reduce packaging and single use plastics
• increasing the use of recycled materials by eliminating barriers and updating government procurement guidelines.

More information on these options is available in our report Recycling and resource recovery infrastructure: Evidence base October 2019. Supporting this report is a range of technical work including the following:

• Inter-jurisdictional analysis – an assessment of recycling and resource recovery practices, technologies and markets in other states and around the world
• Sector mapping and market design – an analysis of the Victorian recycling and resource recovery market design
• Materials flow analysis – an analysis of waste flows, material market values, value add opportunities and fates of materials in the Victorian waste and resource recovery sector
• Infrastructure analysis – sets out the context for planning, funding, construction and operation of infrastructure under different policy and investment scenarios
• Legislative and regulatory settings – an examination of the legislative and regulatory settings in place in the sector
• Community research – analysis of community attitudes and perceptions on recycling and resource recovery.

Submissions

Submissions have now closed. Thank you to all those who made a submission.

• NWRIC Recycling Evidence Base Submission 17 December 2019
• City of Greater Bendigo – recycling and resource recovery submission – 16 December 2019
• Alex Fraser Group – recycling evidence base submission – 13 December 2019
• Pat Keating – recycling evidence base submission – 13 December 2019
• Alan Couchman – recycling evidence base submission – 13 December 2019
• Mount Alexander Shire Council – recycling evidence base submission – 13 December 2019
• Licella Holdings – recycling evidence base submission – 13 December 2019
• Northern Grampians Shire Council – recycling evidence base submission – 13 December 2019
• Planet Ark Environmental Foundation – recycling evidence base submission – 13 December 2019
• Australian Packaging Covenant Organisation – recycling evidence base submission – 13 December 2019
• Municipal Association of Victoria – recycling evidence base submission – 13 December 2019
• Tony Smith – recycling evidence base submission – 13 December 2019
• Glen Eira City Council – recycling evidence base submission – 13 December 2019
• Mark Korvin – recycling evidence base submission – 13 December 2019
• North East Waste and Resource Recovery Group – recycling evidence base submission – 13 December 2019
• Surf Coast Shire – recycling evidence base submission – 13 December 2019
• Australian Industrial Ecology Network Pty Ltd – recycling evidence base submission – 13 December 2019
• Australian Food and Grocery Council – recycling evidence base submission – 13 December 2019
• Tetra Pak – recycling evidence base submission – 13 December 2019
• Barwon South West Waste & Resource Recovery Group – recycling evidence base submission – 13 December 2019
• PACT Group / Viscount Plastics – recycling evidence base submission – 13 December 2019
• Moreland City Council – recycling evidence base submission – 13 December 2019
• City of Greater Dandenong – recycling evidence base submission – 13 December 2019
• Barwon Water – recycling evidence base submission – 13 December 2019
• City of Greater Geelong – recycling evidence base submission – 13 December 2019
• Jim Tutt – recycling evidence base submission – 13 December
• Bayside City Council – recycling evidence base submission – 13 December 2019
• SUEZ – recycling evidence base submission – 12 December 2019
• City of Port Phillip – recycling evidence base submission – 12 December 2019
• Corangamite Shire Council – recycling evidence base submission – 12 December 2019
• Cobalt Design – recycling evidence base submission – 11 December 2019
• Teletrac Navman – recycling evidence base submission – 9 December 2019
• Graeme Stewart – recycling evidence base report submission – 9 December 2019
• Cement Concrete & Aggregates Australia – recycling evidence base report submission – 6 December 2019
• Moyne Shire Council – recycling evidence base report submission – 4 December 2019
• Oil Fox Australia – recycling evidence base report submission – 3 December 2019
• Colac Otway Shire – recycling evidence base report submission – 29 November 2019
• Duncan Rouch – recycling evidence base report submission – 18 November 2019
• Katherine Hollaway –  recycling evidence base report submission – 10 November 2019
• Ben Gianchino – recycling evidence base report submission – 3 November 2019
• Maxen Consulting Group – recycling evidence base report submission – 22 October 2019 
• Tim Fraser – recycling evidence base report submission – 21 October 2019

About the advice

Infrastructure Victoria has been asked to provide advice to government on recycling and resource recovery infrastructure in Victoria. Specifically, the government is seeking advice on the infrastructure that would be required and the role for government in providing support to:

• develop Victoria’s re-processing sector for recycled material, particularly those that currently rely heavily on overseas markets such as plastics
• better enable the use of products containing recycled materials in a variety of Victoria industries, such as manufacturing, construction and agriculture
• support a waste to energy sector that prioritises the extraction of recyclable material and recovers energy only from the residual waste (i.e. without diverting waste from reuse or recycling)
• support high levels of resource for organics, particularly food organics.

Terms of reference provided by the Special Minister of State set out the scope of the advice in more detail.

Infrastructure Victoria’s advice to government is due in April 2020.