THE CHALLENGES

Waste Processing and Disposal

NSW faces a number of significant challenges in relation to waste management. Waste infrastructure and landfill capacity within the Sydney metropolitan area is near capacity. Recent and impending changes to waste regulatory measures have created uncertainty in the industry and a reduced appetite for commercial risk. The stringent environmental compliance requirements placed on Energy from Waste Infrastructure has created challenges for the waste industry.

In addition, the NSW Government’s recent announcement of only four specific precincts in the state where Energy from Waste infrastructure will be permitted, set back a number of major waste infrastructure projects that until that point were well under way through the planning and design process, resulting in a further delay in the availability of viable waste infrastructure. Given the four approved precincts are all in rural locations a considerable distance from Sydney, the increased cost of transporting the waste to these facilities will be borne by the ratepayers of the most densely populated parts of the state. The NSW Environment Protection Authority’s recent change of position on acceptable input materials for FOGO bins has created concern among councils about the financial and contractual risks that the implementation of FOGO may place on their residents.

Domestic Waste Collection

At 21 persons per square kilometre, Wollondilly Shire has one of the smallest population-to-square kilometre figures in the Sydney region. In stark comparison, our neighbouring councils of Camden, Campbelltown and Liverpool have ratios of 597, 571 and 767 persons per square kilometre respectively. This means that Wollondilly’s domestic waste collection contractor has very large distances to travel to service our households.

Therefore, unlike our neighbours who have much larger populations to share the cost of a service spread across a much smaller geographic area, Wollondilly has the challenge of providing a service across a vast geographic region and having to share the cost of that service between a significantly smaller population. One of the longer term benefits of continued population growth in the  Wollondilly Shire will be that the total cost of the waste collection service will be diluted across a larger number of properties.