Waste Avoidance and Resource Recovery Strategy - Essay Example

Waste Avoidance and Resource Recovery Strategy by Student’s name Code+ course name Professor’s name University name City, State Date Background Information Any country has to have a favorable and sustainable environment for its citizens. Waste disposed from households, industries and other sources into the environment affects the environment by degrading and polluting it. Therefore, good procedures for controlling this waste should be put in place to manage the environment. A good waste management policy ensures that there is control on generation of waste, storage, removal and recycling. These processes are essential in waste management. Environment Protection Authority of New South Wales is a government authority responsible for waste management in New South Wales. The Authority enforces the environmental policies that are made by the government. Waste policy of 2007 is one of the waste management policies put in place by the government of New South Wales. The policy put in place on December 2007 to help improve waste management policies (DECC, 2007). The policy is an improvement of 2003 strategy with emphasis on solid waste management. Due to increases solid waste generation in the region and poor waste management procedures, the plan gives the guidelines of managing this waste. It evaluates the performance of the 2003 strategy and proposes a more current waste management approach. It gives ways of recycling and minimizing waste generation. This will help in conserving the environment through waste recycling. This in turn will preserve the environment for future use. The strategy is therefore important tool that the government of New South Wales uses to manage and control waste management by identifying the first priorities in waste management. Aims of the Policy The strategy has the following chief objectives in waste management activities: (i) Shunning and thwarting waste – The strategy endeavors to hold constant the intensity of throwaway production up to the end of this year. It intends to at ensuring there is no increase in waste making no matter the increase in population, trade and industrial growths. Measures should be put in place to ensure that industries do no increase their waste production despite the increased number of produce generation (ii) Enlarged exploit of renewable and improved supplies - The strategy also aims at increasing the recovery intensities in place. This involves increasing the current levels of recovery in different sectors. The levels of community division are to increase from 26% to high rate increase of 66%. The business and manufacturing segment is to increase from 28% to 63% while building and annihilation sector is to increase from 65% to 76%. Each division is to improve and intensify its recovery methodologies to meet these objectives. They have to set individual strategies of meeting the objectives and their expectations as by this policy. This will ensure that there are higher numbers of renewed and recycled products available in the market thus helping minimize disposal of used products. (iii) Plummeting lethality in goods and supplies –Even minor amounts of toxic materials can lead to severe environmental causalities thus escalating the enduring environment degradation. The plan intends to do away with the substances of main concern before the others. In circumstances where this is not achievable, the technique of recycling and re-use will be applied so as disposal of such harmful materials will be the last option. This will ensure there is little toxic disposing to ensure it is in line with the set intensity for a healthy environment. Substances that hinder recovering when mixed with others will be ignored and necessary alternatives opted where possible. A vigorous research in that area will be done to ensure that this activity is possible within the set time. (iv) Dipping garbage and illegitimate throwing away – Methods of measuring the amount of litter disposed are to be used to measure the annually disposed litter. Measures of controlling totality of litter that is accounted every year are to be implemented in the region. This will ensure that the quantity of litter reduces significantly. In addition, legislations are to be in place to control illegal dumping of waste. This will help in prosecution of illegal dumpers and therefore control this activity. This will ensure that less waste is disposed and the disposed waste is stored on designated zones. This helps conserve the environment and scenery of the region. (v) Development of junior targets – Sub-targets are to be put in place to evaluate the progress of the main targets. Breakdown of the comprehensive targets will ensure easier achievability of targets. Different divisions will have their own targets to achieve the main target expected for them. There will be annual reporting to check achievement of these annual targets set for the sectors. There will be collaboration with these divisions to ensure that the goals of the policy are achieved. Implications of the Policy There are various parties affected by this policy. These parties are to work with Environment Department of New South Wales to ensure that these objectives of the plan are met. The parties involved include: (i) Government – The government is responsible for bringing in new plans and methodologies that will help in achieving this policy. Different organs of the government like the cabinet and Environmental Protection Authority are to implement regulations that are to ensure successful implementation of the plan. Therefore, they have a responsibility of setting the framework for implementation of policy. (ii) Legislature – the legislature will be responsible for making laws and legislations that will help the government achieve the policy. These legislations are to law emphasis on legality and illegality of practices relating to waste management. This will give power to the policy enactors. Without laws to enact the policy, the policy will have a weak implementation. Therefore, the legislature has a duty of passing laws that will enable implementation of the policy at the state level. (iii) Local Governments – The local governments are responsible for managing the community affairs at the local level. The local governments are in immediate contact with the public and therefore essential in implementing the policy. The various local governments in New South Wales should put in place by-laws that will ensure waste management and smooth implementation of the Waste Management policy. In addition, it should put in place measures of revenue collection to be used for these activities at the local level. (iv) Judiciary and Law Enforcement – The law enforcement agencies in New South Wales should work alongside the policy implementers to ensure the policy is implemented. People who violate the laws concerning the policy should be taken to court for trial. The judges should in turn provide a fair trial for the convict(s). This will ensure there is good follow up of the policy. (v) The Public – The public should participate fully in implementation of the policy. They should abide by the policy expectations. Groups for community awareness should be formed to ensure enough civic education of the policy. Policy Accountability Ministers of Environment and Heritage are responsible for oversight of the policy. The Department of Planning and Environment is responsible for management of the policy. They give the methodologies and strategies of achieving the plan. They ensure that the policy has been implemented fully as expected by government. The Office of Environment and Heritage is responsible for monitoring and evaluating the successes of the policy implementation. It takes the responsibilities previously carried out by Department of Environment, Climate Change and Water (DECCW) which succeeded Department of Environment and Climate Change (DECC). It gives reports on implementation of the policy on annual bases. It also checks how the policy has been implemented and recommends ways of implementing the policy and audits the policy. Environment Protection Authority is responsible body for the policy implementation. It carries out the actual implementation using the available legislations. T also monitors individuals and organizations that do not adhere to the implementation modalities. It operates through the recommendations of Office of Environment and Heritage. Policy Communication The general community has been notified of the policy on its modifications since the initial policy of 2003. They have therefore come up with activities that help implement this policy. Civic education and community awareness campaigns are being carried out to ensure the citizens are up to date with the policy. There is also the use of local and federal media in creating awareness of the policy. The public has a feeling that the government needs to put more effort in the policy implementation (DECCW, 2010). This shows that the public is fully aware of the policy and its expectations. It is familiar with its advantages and thus pushing for more government action. Policy Evaluation The policy is clearly in pursuit of achieving its goals. The auditing reports carried each year such as that of 2010 show that the policy is achieving its sub-targets (DECCW, 2011). This has been due to combined efforts between different sectors involved in the policy. The policy has also been broken into simpler and easily achievable strategies that will help in achieving the big picture. These audit reports therefore have helped us to evaluate the achievements of the policy as they form the basis of understanding its successes so far. Conclusion Waste Management policy is an essential policy for environmental conservation in New South Wales and the region in general. It provides modalities through which various waste generating sectors will manage their waste o preserve the environment. It is therefore an essential plan in controlling habitat degradation. References 1. DECC. (2007). NSW Waste Avoidance and Management Strategy. Retrieved on 10 October 2014 from http://www.epa.nsw.gov.au/resources/warr/07226WARRreport07.pdf 2. DECCW. (2010). Review of Waste Strategy in New South Wales. Retrieved on 10 October 2014 from http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/resources/warr/101034RevWasteStrat.pdf 3. DECCW. (2011). Reducing Waste: Implementation Strategy 2011 – 2015. Retrieved on 10 October 2014 from http://www.epa.nsw.gov.au/resources/warr/110147implementstrat2011-15.pdf Read More