City of Kwinana Minutes – SMRC RRRC WCF Odour Issue – 21 January 2008
16. REPORTS – PUBLIC HEALTH:
16.1 SMRC Strategic Waste Management Plan (SWMP) Final
Portfolio: Crs Kearney, Feasey and Lee
Sub-Program: Waste Management
Author: Manager Environmental Health Services
SUMMARY:
For the Town of Kwinana to approve the Strategic Waste Management Plan (SWMP) Final, which has been adopted by the SMRC and will be submitted to the Chief Executive Officer of the Department of Environment and Conservation for approval on behalf of all member Councils participating in this project. This will satisfy the Ministerial Conditions published in the Government Gazette on 28 September 2007.
Council previously approved the Draft SWMP on the 26 November 2008 and is now being requested to adopt the final SWMP for submission.
The comments in this report are taken from the SMRC report on this matter and it should be noted that the changes are minor in nature and it is recommended that the SWMP Final be approved.
OFFICER RECOMMENDATION:
That Council:
1. Acknowledges that the minor amendments itemised in the Southern Metropolitan Regional Council report have been incorporated into the Final Plan by the Southern Metropolitan Regional Council;
2. Approves the Southern Metropolitan Regional Council Strategic Waste Management Plan Final Dated 1 December 2008; and
3. Advises the CEO of the Southern Metropolitan Regional Council of the Town of Kwinana Council’s resolution to satisfy the Town’s obligation under the Waste and Resources Recovery Act 2007 and the Ministerial Conditions published in the Government Gazette on 28 September 2007.
DISCUSSION:
This matter is required to be submitted to the Chief Executive Officer of the Southern Metropolitan Regional Council urgently to facilitate it being submitted to the Chief Executive Officer of the Department of Environment and Conservation for approval to comply with the requirements issued to local governments and regional Councils, which were the Ministerial Conditions published in the Government Gazette on 28 September 2007.
The following comments are taken from the SMRC report to the Southern Metropolitan Regional Council to enable Council to understand the position taken from the Draft report presented to the Town of Kwinana at its meeting on the 26 November 2008.
The SWMP was provided by the SMRC to all participating member Councils, DEC have provided comment dated 14 November 2008 and one public submission has been received dated 14 November 2008.
The SWMP is required to be endorsed by each participating Council prior to full DEC approval.
It should be noted that each initiative described in 10.2 Regional Expenditure Plan Budget is deliberately non prescriptive in that the steps taken to reach resolution of each initiative are collaborative and consultative and therefore do not provide some of the detail the DEC make comment on, but it is expected they will emerge during the process.
Each initiative in the Plan includes, as a minimum, the following steps:
Steering Committee
Scope Project
Data Collection
Prepare Report
Consultation with Stakeholders
SMRC Approval
Member Council Approval
DEC Consultation
Summary extract from DEC Letter of Comment
The draft SWMP meets those Ministerial Conditions relative to the three key elements of improvement identified in the scheme. Those improvements relate to existing waste services, reducing the environmental impacts of waste management, and improving community awareness of waste related environmental issues and waste management and recycling services. With respect to the last matter, DEC acknowledges SMRC as a leader in education programs and encourages further cross-regional collaboration and multi-stakeholder involvement to send out consistent recycling and sustainability messages.
DEC specific comments
With specific reference to the detail of the draft SWMP the following comments have been provided by the DEC and are addressed in italics below:
- Page 3, 3rd paragraph, suggests that all collected waste from the named Local Governments is taken to RRRC. Is this true for Rockingham?
The SWMP clearly identifies that Rockingham and Kwinana send MSW to landfill and recyclables to the RRRC.
- Pages 15 and 16 provide discussion on the potential impacts of regulation and the need for a greater degree of policy and regulatory certainty. It suggests a greater role for local government in the decision making process at a high level. This does not appear to be reflected in the proposed actions and DEC is interested to know how SMRC believes this matter might be progressed.
The SWMP states this can only be achieved by having a more fully engaged consultation role in the decision making processes at the highest possible levels. Discussion with the DEC is required in order to formulate a process to do this and this intent is included in the action plan e.g. Initiative 7.14.
- Page 16, Section 6.2.8, details a number of external funding opportunities. It does not appear to include the National Packaging Covenant, which can provide financial support for waste minimisation projects.
Section 6.2.8 will be reworded to include funding opportunities under the National Packaging Covenant and to delineate those programmes which have specific waste funding opportunities from those which are primarily education programmes.
- Page 37, 1st paragraph, 2nd sentence, first part up to “…in WA”, is not clear. The sentence in question is “The SMRC has one of the only Mechanical Biological in vessel composting facility operating in WA”
This will be reworded to read: “The SMRC has the only Mechanical Biological in-vessel composting facility operating in WA”
• Page 38, Section 8.2.1, 6th dot point, suggests some interesting incentives to increase local government staff participation in waste reduction and recycling programs. This does not appear to be reflected in the “Initiatives”. Similarly, the final dot point on that page refers to standardised signage for public place recycling. This might be a cross-regional initiative.
Initiative 8.2 Inter-council workshops on page 50 addresses this. Similarly standardised signage is a component of Initiative 4.2 “Introduce public place recycling”.
- Page 39, Section 8.2.3, 1st dot point, raises the matter of local government Chief Executive Officer leadership. DEC sees this as a key opportunity. Noted.
- Page 43 and subsequent ‘Issues, Actions and Opportunities”.
- Where initiatives are to be carried out with other parties, it may be useful to list them. For example, initiative 5.6 refers to Household Hazardous Waste, where Western Australian Local Government Association and DEC will probably have a level of input.
- Initiative 7.11 highlights a potential major contributor to the Commercial & Industrial waste stream. This is a matter that might benefit from State Government input and could perhaps have a higher profile in the SWMP.
- Initiatives 7.17 and 8.5 call for Government leadership. How is SMRC going to promote this? Initiative 9. At a
- recent meeting with representatives from drumMUSTER, DEC was requested to advise local governments of the opportunity to participate by recycling chemical containers. This might be worth consideration.
These points are all noted and it is considered they will emerge as a product of the project scoping of the relative initiatives.
Public consultation
At a meeting held on the 3 April 2008 between the Department of Environment and Conservation (DEC) and the SMRC it was agreed that the SMRC would carry out the following public consultation process:
- The draft Plan will be advertised in local newspapers across the region.
- Plan copies will be available on the SMRC website and at the SMRC offices.
- Plan copies will be available on member Council websites and offices.
- Media releases concerning the Plan, its importance, and the public consultation process will also be initiated.
- The public will be invited to review the Plan and make comments to the SMRC.
- The comments will be collated by the SMRC’s Manager Communications and a report prepared for the Regional Council prior to the adoption of the Plan.
- The public comment period will be 30 days.
This process was undertaken and a number of requests for copies of the SWMP made. However, only one submission was received by the cut off date of 14 November. This was from Dr Heather Lamont, Member Harvest Lakes Residents Association and was positive and supportive of the SWMP. It is proposed to respond directly to Dr Lamont addressing each of the points made.
A submission was also received on 17 November after the cut off date. The submission from Mr Otto Mueller is wide ranging and covers a number of issues beyond the scope of the SWMP. It is proposed to respond directly to the issues raised that are relevant to the plan and adopt the request to include a glossary of terms.
Member Council Consultation
A copy of the draft SWMP was sent to each Chief Executive Officer for consideration. Each member of the Regional Executive Committee (REC) was invited to receive a briefing from the SMRC. The only formal briefing given was to Town of Kwinana Council. Given the SWMP was developed as a bottom up plan, i.e. engagement with key Council stakeholders was developed by the REC and regular briefings occurred during the process, it is considered that this was sufficient.
Minor Amendments
Given the constraints of time between receiving comment and the provision of this report, it has not been possible to include all the minor amendments into the SWMP itself. It is therefore proposed that the SWMP incorporates the minor amendments itemised in this report including the following minor enhancements; re-proof read for punctuation, spelling and grammar errors, provide a clearer layout with appropriate headers, footers and references where applicable, provide a glossary of terms and delete reference to the South West Group.
Council at its meeting of the 26 November 2008 item 16.2 resolved to endorse the Draft Strategic Waste Management Plan prepared by the Southern Metropolitan Regional Council.
Council is requested to approve the Strategic Waste Management Plan Final dated the 1 December 2008 as prepared and adopted by the Southern Metropolitan Regional Council.
LEGAL/POLICY IMPLICATIONS:
“For the purpose of Councillors considering a financial or impartiality interest only, the proponent/owner is the Southern Metropolitan Regional Council which Council is a member.”
Council in adopting this resolution to approve SWMP Final dated 1 December 2008 will be satisfying the requirements of the Waste and Resources Recovery Act 2007 and the Ministerial Conditions published in the Government Gazette on 28 September 2007.
This SWMP Final as prepared and adopted by the SMRC when approved by the Town of Kwinana will form the Town of Kwinana Plan under the requirements of the Waste and Resources Recovery Act 2007 and the Ministerial Conditions published in the Government Gazette on 28 September 2007.
This SWMP is then to be submitted to the Chief Executive Officer of the DEC for Final approval and will be required to be implemented and reported on via the SMRC as the regional Council which Council is a member.
Money has been allocated in the current budget to cover the costs of the plan as shown above.
Future budgets will need to take into consideration the SMRC and Council program changes and to comply with obligations created by legislative requirements under the Waste and Resources Recovery Act 2007.
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPLICATIONS:
The Strategic Waste Management Plan is being established by the SMRC to meet the state vision for waste management being focussed towards resource recovery and reuse, in line with the provisions of the WARR Act. All actions are beneficial to the environment in line with the state objective of ‘Towards Zero Waste to Landfill by 2020’.
STRATEGIC/SOCIAL IMPLICATIONS:
Council’s Strategic Plan provides:
Promote and implement best practice waste management and maximise the resource recovery from landfill to maximise reuse of resources through the SMRC and continue to participate in the SMRC energy, waste, water and greenhouse gas reduction programs.
The Strategic Waste Management Plan will enable Council as a member of the SMRC to provide long term waste and recycling recovery services to meet the needs of the community and to comply with the WARR Act obligations.
RISK IMPLICATIONS:
Without regional cooperation via the SMRC the financial burden for waste and recycling recovery services will have a dramatic impact on the Council and the local community. The Final Strategic Waste Management Plan 1 December 2008 provides a clear direction and will reduce the overall risk to the Council and the community.
COUNCIL DECISION
410
MOVED CR LEE SECONDED CR BERSAN
That Council:
1. Acknowledges that the minor amendments itemised in the Southern Metropolitan Regional Council report have been incorporated into the Final Plan by the Southern Metropolitan Regional Council;
2. Approves the Southern Metropolitan Regional Council Strategic Waste Management Plan Final Dated 1 December 2008; and
3. Advises the CEO of the Southern Metropolitan Regional Council of the Town of Kwinana Council’s resolution to satisfy the Town’s obligation under the Waste and Resources Recovery Act 2007 and the Ministerial Conditions published in the Government Gazette on 28 September 2007.
CARRIED
