The Auditor General has found that the State’s Local Government are not on track to meet waste recovery targets in their communities.
Tabling her report, Waste Management – Service Delivery, in Parliament, Auditor General Caroline Spencer said waste collection in Western Australia at the Local Government level was largely effective.
“However, inadequate local, regional and State-wide waste planning, including for waste infrastructure, and a lack of tailored support for Local Government entities that manage household waste, has limited the State’s ability to meet its Waste Strategy targets,” Ms Spencer said.
“Entities are not all effectively encouraging waste avoidance, nor maximising waste recovery by reusing, reprocessing and recycling.”
She said that as a result, the State was not on track to meet the 2020 targets of 65 per cent household waste recovery in the Perth and Peel region and 50 per cent in major regional centres.
Ms Spencer said the latest available data from 2017-18 showed that the waste recovery rate was 41 per cent for the Perth and Peel region and 28 per cent for the regional centres, well below the 2020 targets.
“If entities are to progress the State’s vision to become a sustainable, low-waste society and have a better chance of meeting recovery targets, better practice waste management techniques need to be more widely implemented,” she said.
“The Waste Authority and Department of Water and Environmental Regulation have substantially improved their support to entities since our 2016 audit. However, both can do more to assist, particularly to entities in regional areas.”
She said her audit report contained a number of recommendations to ensure all levels of Government worked together towards achieving the targets and objectives in the State Waste Strategy.
“Making a concerted effort to use available practices to avoid and recover more waste, plus improved waste planning, is the key to continuing to lift the State’s waste and recycling performance,” Ms Spencer said.
The Auditor General’s 50-page report can be accessed on this PS News link and the audit team was Jordan Langford-Smith, Jacqueline Richards, Issihaka Toure, Justin Fairhead and Jo Stapley.
