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With the lowest recycling rate of any Australian state, and more rubbish going to landfill than getting recycled, there are a lot of improvements that can be made in the way that we manage our rubbish in WA
As part of CCWA’s partnership with the Waste Management Authority of WA, we have conducted a survey to better understand community views on the critical issues of recycling, waste avoidance and the role that producers and retailers can play.
In the course of this survey we got more than we bargained for, discovering that many Western Australians have a quiet fascination with waste!
The strong response rate and range of answers provided by respondents indicate that there is a high level of interest and engagement on waste and recycling issues in the WA community and people have strongly held views about the topic.
The results show that Western Australian’s are already doing a lot in their own homes to reduce waste, but there is strong community support for government, manufacturers and retailers to step up their efforts waste and recycling.
In particular, people strongly supported Extended Producer Responsibility schemes, where manufacturers are made responsible for recycling the products they sell.
Here is a summary of key findings from the survey:
Recycling:
- Respondents generally rated their own household’s recycling performance as high and were generally satisfied with waste management services provided by Local Government.
- Nearly 40% of people regularly find their recycling bin full before collection day, suggesting that that simply increasing collection frequency could save more material from landfill
- There was strong support (69% of those surveyed) for a system of charging for waste collection by weight instead of the standard fixed amount paid in council rates.
- Nearly two-thirds of households compost food scraps and organic waste at home.
Waste Avoidance:
- Consumers are looking at avoiding excess packaging and more than half the respondents are already taking actions to do so.
- 61.9% select brands that use less packaging 61.3% buy unpackaged whole foods, while 59.3% shop at farmers markets.
- There is strong support for initiatives to engage retailers and producers in reducing packaging.
- Apart from the packaging, the majority of respondents try to avoid waste from the product itself, especially for food (74.9%) and cleaning products (78.5%).
- Purchasing of second-hand goods was a popular way for people to reduce waste, with over two thirds of respondents regularly recycling in this manner. Garage sales and swap meets (42.7%) are a favorite with ebay/online purchases coming second (36.9%) followed by the newspaper classified, charity/second hand shops. A number of respondents salvaged goods from council verge side collections.
- Nearly two-thirds of respondents said they grow some of their food at home
- Less than half of respondents said they regularly borrowed or hired goods to avoid purchasing them.
Producer Responsibility
- The survey showed overwhelming support (92.9%) for ‘Extended Producer Responsibility’ schemes where manufacturers and retailers are made responsible for recycling the products that they sell or produce.
- Nearly 90% of survey respondents were willing to accept increased prices for products covered by EPR schemes with 62.8% willing to pay a 5% increase and 24.3% and ready to pay more than 5% increase.
- The products people feel the strongest about are electronic equipment (92.2%), car tyres (88.9%) white goods (88.1%), packaging (76.1%) and paint (73.2%)
- Other products proposed by respondents for targeting by EPR measures include batteries, light globes, bottles, cans, car batteries and parts, compact-fluorescent light globes, chemicals, clothing, cosmetics, furniture, junk mail, mobile phones, nappies, newspapers, medical waste, etc, with many respondents calling for EPR schemes for everything pr all packaging.
- A number of people called for product life and warranty to be increased for consumer goods.
You can download the full report on survey results here
