The Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action (DEECA) is seeking feedback on its Proposed Household Waste and Recycling Service Standard 2024 (Proposed Standard) and Proposed Circular Economy (Waste Reduction and Recycling) (Mandatory Service Provision and Other Matters) Regulations 2024 (Proposed Regulations).
The Proposed Standard and Proposed Regulations are regulated by Recycling Victoria under the Circular Economy (Waste Reduction and Recycling) Act 2021 (the Act), which requires Councils to provide the following services:
- residual waste services (general rubbish);
- mixed recycling services;
- glass recycling services; and
- food organics and garden organics (FOGO) services.
The Proposed Regulations and Proposed Standard are available here. DEECA is accepting submissions on the Proposed Regulations and Proposed Standard until 14 August 2024. The Proposed Regulations prescribe these services to be provided from 1 July 2027.
FOGO Opt-Out Requirement
One of the features of the Proposed Standard is that it requires Councils to provide an opt-out option for the FOGO service, to allow households to re-use their FOGO waste on their own property. In offering an opt-out option, Councils must take reasonable steps to ensure the household FOGO material does not enter the general rubbish stream and that households are able to resume a kerbside FOGO service in the future if they wish.
Other Requirements
The Proposed Standard also sets out:
-
that FOGO services must be provided as a single service combining food and garden organics and only be provided separately where this is not reasonably practicable;
- that waste services must be provided as kerbside collection services, unless it is not reasonable practicable such as in areas with a dispersed population;
- that waste service streams must be delivered in accordance with the Proposed Standard's standard contents list;
- options for the mixed recycling services depending on whether Council has an arrangement for the recycling of soft plastics or not; and
- all bins for kerbside collection services must have the following bind lid colours by 1 July 2027
- general rubbish: red;
- Mixed recycling: yellow;
- glass recycling: purple; and
- FOGO: lime green.
Impact and Recommended Next Steps
The impact of the Proposed Regulations and Proposed Standard is significant. Recycling Victoria is undertaking broad consultation and has released a Regulatory Impact Statement regarding the proposed changes.
Once the final Proposed Standard is approved by the responsible Minister under section 63 of the Act, it will be an offence to fail to comply with the Proposed Standard under section 69 of the Act. The Proposed Standard must be incorporate into agreements for waste, recycling or resource recovery services and the impact on existing and future agreements will be a key issue for industry participants as they navigate contract interpretation issues and potential contract variations.
The FOGO opt-out requirement may cause issues for Councils who have entered contracts for FOGO services beyond 1 July 2027. Not only is there an additional administrative and logistical challenge in administering such a system but the impact on funding arrangements via the waste service charge that local council use to fund these services could be more problematic as the cost of these services could be borne by a smaller group of ratepayers that do not opt out of the service.
More generally, Councils should ensure they are drafting and entering into waste services contracts with the Proposed Regulations and Proposed Standard in mind.
We are here to help
If you have any questions regarding the Proposed Regulations and Proposed Standard and how they will impact your waste services contracts, please contact Principal, Kyle Gillan.
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