Tuesday, 18 February 2025

Waste and recycling management

Tim READ (Brunswick) (19:15): (1007) My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Environment, and the action I seek is that the Victorian government mandate high-quality recycling systems in multi-unit developments. Multi-unit developments can make their own waste and recycling arrangements and often use private companies of varying quality. Many apartment residents are therefore unable to access recycling in the same way as their peers in detached, lower density housing who use council waste services and recycling outcomes in apartment blocks are poorer as a result. I heard today from a resident in an apartment building in my electorate that residents leave waste in a landfill and a recycling bin but they are then collected and combined into the same truck. Unaware that this is the work of a private company, people can be forgiven for thinking the recycling is a scam. But organisations like Reground have been working with apartment residents to create successful recycling systems featuring recycling rooms that are bright, well-signed and comprehensive and sometimes encompassing up to eight different recycling and re-use streams, such as clothes, small appliances, footwear, soft plastic packaging and furniture. These systems provide multidimensional educational support, including onsite waste champions who help everything to go where it should. These are popular programs that greatly improve recycling outcomes, and the Victorian government should support this approach across the state. All residential buildings over a certain size should be required to develop an extensive recycling suite, including resident education. A support fund for coordinated implementation in partnership with local government would go a long way, and Victoria could even require developers to put up the funds. Funding will be important, and this burden should not be placed on local government. Victorians want to recycle, so we should help Victorians to do it properly no matter where they live.