ENVS8403/7403: Environmental Management in Australia Report

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of waste management practices in Australia. It begins with an introduction to environmental management, highlighting the importance of addressing ecological issues, with a specific focus on waste management. A literature review provides context to waste management, covering its processes from waste creation to disposal, and the diverse methods across different regions. The report then examines waste management in Australia, detailing its historical development, current governmental regulations, and the infrastructure involved, including transfer stations, resource recovery facilities, and landfills. The National Waste Policy is discussed as a framework for waste management and resource recovery. The report identifies challenges in waste management, such as the dominance of landfills and their environmental and social impacts, and the implications of the recycling industry crisis. Finally, it explores potential solutions, including reducing single-use products and promoting recycling, and emphasizes the need for sustainable practices. The report concludes with a summary of the key findings and references relevant literature.

Running head: ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT
2020
Science in Environmental Management
waste Management in Australia

ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT 1
Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
Literature review....................................................................................................................2
Waste Management in Australia............................................................................................3
National Waste Policy............................................................................................................5
Challenges in Waste Management in Australia......................................................................6
The solution to the problem....................................................................................................7
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................7
References..................................................................................................................................8

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Introduction
Environmental management is comprised of managing varied environmental initiatives to
highlight different ecological issues that influence the globe (Amiri, Noubbigh, Nauui and
Choura, 2015). Environmental management is about preventing the ecological disaster and
supporting the environmental crises and focusing on identifying suitable solutions.
Environmental management in broader terms takes into account the marine, atmosphere, and
land conditions, like global warming, deforestation, and marine-life preservation (Mangra,
Cotoc and Traistary, 2014). The intent of this paper is to study the environmental
management subject by selecting a specific area that is waste management in Australia. In
this paper an outline of the current challenges is being presented for the environmental
management and prediction is being made how the situation will change in the coming future
or any kind of new challenge will emerge.
Literature review
Waste management also called waste disposal is comprised of the actions and activities that
are needed to handle the waste from its creation to disposal. This comprises the gathering,
transport, handling, and discarding of the waste, along with regulation and monitoring of the
procedure of the waste management (Amasuomo and Baird, 2016). Waste can be in any form
like gas, liquid, or solid and all these types has diverse means of management and disposal.
Waste management is all about dealing with different types of waste comprising household,
biological, and industrial. In a few cases, waste can lead to a threat to the health of humans
(Mondol, Hasan and Rahman, 2013). The production of waste is from the activities of
humans, for instance, the processing and withdrawal of raw materials. The intent of waste
management is to decrease the negative influence of waste on the health of humans,
aesthetics, or the environment. The practices of waste management are not the same in
different nations (developing and developed countries); regions (rural and urban), and the

ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT 3
industrial and residential segment can all take diverse approaches (Tambe, Ayongwa,
Ngwabie and Forbid, 2016). A huge portion of the practices of waste management manages
the municipal solid waste which is a name given to the huge lot of waste that is produced by
commercial, industrial, and household activities.
Waste Management in Australia
In Australia, the waste management procedure is executed as one of the modern systems in
the 19th century second half, with its developments executed by sanitary and technological
advances. It is presently managed at the state and federal level (Herat, 2009). The Department
of the Environment and Energy is accountable for the framework of national legislation. The
country’s waste management has diverse influence and application based on demographic,
behavioral, and geographical dynamics. The responsible authorities have promoted different
reports and campaigns. The waste management system is presently going through a
reformation procedure to establish reliable and circular legislation based on the economy, a
dependable database, and independent domestic industry. These aspects have impacted
industry development and interstate relations
According to the Australian Government data, around 48 million tons of waste in solid form
is produced on yearly basis in the material-intensive economy of Australia that is managed by
the 2846 facilities of waste management of the country that is normally discarded to landfills,
resource recovery facilities, and transfer stations. The below image is highlighting the
distribution of the waste management infrastructure of Australia.

ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT 4
Source [(Department of Agriculture, Water, and Environment, 2013)]
Transfer Stations - These are considered to be the merging points in the chain of waste
logistics, in which the waste that is collected can be combined, compressed, and loaded to a
specific purpose, freight containers or long-haul vehicles for the transportation to diverse
sites of disposal (Manaf, Pei, Zukki and Samah, 2009).
Resource Recovery Facilities – These are planned to process and sort waste materials by
making use of different mechanical, thermal, and biological technologies. The investment of
the responsible authority of the country in the technologies of resource recovery has
augmented in last few years to increase the recycling of waste. The main resource recovery
infrastructure types are:
 Material Recovery facilities
 Garden organics Processing facilities
 Recycling facilities
 Alternative Waste Treatment facilities
 Thermal Waste Technologies

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Landfills - Landfills is the one that dominates the infrastructure of waste stock and receives
around 40% of the waste of Australia. They are considered to be the most favored places for
the mixed waste, basically because of the capacity and accessibility of current facilities, and
the reasonable landfilling cost than the options used to recuperate more resources
(Nkwachukwu, Chidi and Charles, 2010). 1168 operational landfills in Australia get waste of
around 20 million tones on a yearly basis.
The available landfills in Australia differ in terms of size from small facilities that get less
than 1000 tones every year, to large engineered facilities that get around 100,000 tones every
year. As per the current examination of the Landfill Survey Data presented by the Waste
Management Association of the country, it has been revealed that 75% of the waste disposal
is done at large landfills (Department of Agriculture, Water, and Environment, 2013). Most
of the landfill operators take into account the pre-disposal activities of resource recovery,
mainly in the garden organics composting, recycling, and C&D waste sorting, and
organization of recyclable materials from household.
National Waste Policy
NWP works as a framework for waste management and resource recovery in the Australian
region. It specifies the responsibilities and roles for shared action by the communities,
individuals, government, and businesses (Department of Agriculture, Water, and
Environment, 2018). This policy provides the guidelines related to the on-going collaboration
between all the governments of the country, industries, and businesses. It does not eliminate
the need for industries, businesses, and governments to execute custom-made solutions in
response to regional and local situations. The first waste policy of the country was introduced
in the year 2009 and the updated one was introduced in 2018.

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Challenges in Waste Management in Australia
As discussed above Landfills are the dominating way to dispose of the waste in the country as
a mix of waste can be disposed of through this system. With time landfills are becoming a
huge challenge for the government of Australia to manage. This is because 40% of the waste
is disposed of in landfills which shows that the number of landfills is more in the country in
comparison to European countries (Klymenko, 2018). Due to this, the government is dealing
with issues in managing the communities because no one desires to stay near landfills or
build their home close to it. Besides this, landfills are also placed near the agricultural areas
in Australia which increases the chances of leaking of chemicals in the soil and
contamination of the food.
Landfills do not perform many roles in a sustainable society depending on the thinking of a
circular economy. A circular economy is a concept under which the material value is retained
for a longer duration, which decreases the natural resources depletion and influence of
material use and generation of waste in the environment. There are different countries with a
population of around 150 million, have almost removed the landfills like Sweden, Austria,
Germany, Denmark, Norway, Switzerland, the Netherlands, and Belgium. These countries
are landfilling around 3% or less than that of their waste. Whereas, in the case of Australia
landfills receive 40% of the waste (Klymenko, 2018).
The above-specified countries have done this by increasing the separating, processing and
recycling the food and organic waste by the use of different technologies like anaerobic
digestion and energy from the waste technologies for different waste streams. They have not
achieved this overnight this has taken long-term plans comprising instruments like levies and
landfill directives and major public education programs.
Considering the above discussion, it can be said that if this will continue in the future the
country will sooner or later have to consume food that is grown with harmful chemicals.

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Even people in the country have to compromise by living near the landfills which can
negatively impact their health.
Furthermore, it has been observed that the recyclable waste of Australia in the coming future
will be dumped to landfill due to its expensive prices for the local council to recycle. It is the
outcome of the recycling industry crisis of Australia (MacKenzie, 2018). Recently, China has
banned on the imported solid waste from Australia which will in the coming period lead to
dumping of the same in the landfill, which will eventually result in impacting the crops and
food and also the living of human in the future.
The solution to the problem
To reduce the disposal of wastage to landfills, the government needs to encourage people to
limit their use of single-use and disposable products and take an alternative that can be used
more than one time. People of the country were also opting for products with less packaging.
Besides this, they must avoid using plastic bags the time they do not require it. They must use
recyclable or reusable bags (Department of Industry, Science, Energy, and Resources, 2020).
Australians also need to think carefully while building or renovating their home and make use
of durable products. In addition to this, they must provide their unwanted furniture,
appliances, or clothes to charities. While going to purchase something different or new, try to
find a second-hand item such that wastage can be reduced.
Conclusion
The above report has presented a review of different articles that highlights the notion of
waste management and the practices of waste management in the Australian market. From
the analysis, it can be said that the country is presenting majorly using landfills for waste
disposal which is negatively impacting not just the community but also the food. The analysis
revealed that 40% of the waste is disposed to landfills in the country which is a very high
amount in comparison to other countries as specified above. To reduce the percentage of

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wastage and waste to landfills, Australians are recommended to recycle their products like
clothes and appliances or provide them with charity.

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References
Amasuomo, E., and Baird, J. (2016) The Concept of Waste and Waste Management. Journal
of Management and Sustainability, 6(4), 88-92.
Amiri, M.M., Noubbigh, H., Nauui, K., and Choura, N. (2015) Environmental Management
System: Environmental Impacts and Productivity. International Journal of Business and
Management, 10(11), 107-109.
Department of Agriculture, Water, and Environment (2013) Australia's waste and resource
recovery infrastructure [online]. Available from
https://www.environment.gov.au/protection/waste-resource-recovery/national-waste-
reports/national-waste-report-2013/infrastructure [accessed 18 March 2020]
Department of Agriculture, Water, and Environment (2018) National Waste Policy [online].
Available from https://www.environment.gov.au/protection/waste-resource-recovery/
national-waste-policy [accessed 18 March 2020]
Department of Industry, Science, Energy, and Resources (2020) Reducing waste [online].
Available from https://www.energy.gov.au/households/reducing-waste [accessed 18 March
2020]
Herat, S. (2009) Electronic waste: An emerging issue in solid waste management in
Australia. International Journal of Environment and Waste Management, 3(1/2), 1-5.
Klymenko, P. (2018) Landfill is not a long-term solution for waste management in Australia
[online]. Available from https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-11-18/now-is-the-time-to-scrap-
landfill-in-australia/10487726 [accessed 18 March 2020]

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MacKenzie, A.I. (2018) The recycling crisis in Australia: easy solutions to a hard problem
[online]. Available from https://theconversation.com/the-recycling-crisis-in-australia-easy-
solutions-to-a-hard-problem-95231 [accessed 21 March 2020]
Manaf, A.L., Pei, P.G., Zukki, M.I.N., and Samah, A.A.M. (2009) TSA: An Expert System
for Solid Waste Transfer Station. Journal of Sustainable Development, 1(3), 81-84.
Mangra, G.M., Cotoc, A.E., and Traistary, A. (2014) Sustainable Economic Development
through Environmental Management Systems Implementation. Journal of Studies in Social
Sciences, 6(1), 1-14.
Mondol, F.E., Hasan, R., and Rahman, S. (2013) Solid Waste Management Strategy &
Improvement of Existing Scenario Based on Market Waste. Global Journal of Researches in
Engineering Civil and Structural Engineering, 13(4), 1-3.
Nkwachukwu, I.O., Chidi, I.N., and Charles, O.K. (2010) Issues of Roadside Disposal Habit
of Municipal Solid Waste, Environmental Impacts and Implementation of Sound
Management Practices in Developing Country “Nigeria. International Journal of
Environmental Science and Development, 1(5), 409-415.
Tambe, B.E., Ayongwa, C.G., Ngwabie, M.A., and Forbid, T.G. (2016) Characterisation of
Municipal Solid Waste for Planning Sustainable Waste Management in Kumba Municipality
– South Western Cameroon. The Open Waste Management Journal, 9(2016), 19-27.