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Waste managers discuss alternative technologies

October 14, 2004

waste.jpgFinding alternatives to landfill was the theme of a regional Waste Management Seminar at the University of New England yesterday.
About 40 delegates from throughout NSW attended the seminar (pictured are, from left, Bernadette Thomas and Dr Tony Wilkins) One of them,
Steven Bernasconi, Waste Development Coordinator for Port Stephens Council,
described his Council’s experience in pioneering the successful use of composting technology for mixed household waste.
Bernadette Thomas, Coordinator of the North East Waste Forum, talked about enlisting community support for alternative waste management strategies. She
emphasised the importance of engaging the community from the beginning of
the decision-making process.
Dr Tony Wilkins, NSW Branch President of the Waste Management Association of
Australia (WMAA), chaired the seminar. Dr Wilkins said that Australia was leading the world in (for example) the recycling of newspapers, and that at a State level several Australian States (including NSW) were performing as well as comparable communities anywhere in the world. “The next step is to look at it on a regional basis,” he said. “Engaging the whole community means working with the regions as well. “

The seminar followed last year’s inaugural northern NSW meeting of WMAA,
also held at UNE. Rex Glencross-Grant, a Senior Lecturer in Environmental
Engineering at UNE, convened that meeting and yesterday’s seminar. “We want
to get people in the community thinking and talking about, and actively
participating in, sound waste-management practice,” he said.
“One of our major aims is to reduce landfill to a minimum by getting
treatment processes above the ground,” Mr Glencross-Grant explained.
“Ultimately, only ‘inert’ material that will not contaminate ground water or
produce methane gas will go to landfill.”
He said details presented by representatives of Armidale Dumaresq Council
during the seminar indicated that the Council was on track to meet the State
target of a 60 per cent reduction by the year 2014 in the amount of waste
going to landfill.
At the end of a successful day, the delegates agreed that the regional Waste
Management Seminar for northern NSW should become an annual event.

Posted by Lydia Roberts at October 14, 2004 02:50 PM