Waste Management Strategy - full version - City of Whittlesea

Figure 7: Victorian Waste Hierarchy(Source: EPA ACT 1970)The waste hierarchy is the key principle that underpins waste policy and strategy development within Victoria,Australia and around the world. A ‘hierarchy’ for the treatment of waste was first detailed in policy by theEuropean Council in 1975 through the Directive (75/442/EEC) on Waste (Rasmussen and Vigso 2005).The Environment Protection Act requires municipal councils to manage waste consistent with the metropolitanand regional waste management plans, which is underpinned by the waste hierarchy (VAGO 2011). The Act alsoprovides for funding for many of Victoria’s waste management initiatives and other environmentalsustainability initiatives through the landfill levy. The levy has dramatically increased from $4 per tonne ofwaste disposed in 2001 to $44 in 2011. This represents a significant 1000 per cent increase and it is set toincrease to more than $58 by 2014-15.Environment Protection AuthorityThe Victorian Environment Protection Authority’s (EPA) responsibilities overall relate to emissions or potentialsources of emissions that may be environmentally detrimental to air, land or water.EPA Victoria administers the Environment Protection Act 1970 and its instruments, including those relating tothe regulation of waste management and resource recovery facilities and services, such as works approvals andlicensing of landfills, transfer stations and the transport of waste materials. The EPA is responsible forapproving the metropolitan and regional waste management plans.EPA Victoria’s Best Practice Environmental Management (BEPM) Guidelines for the Siting, Design, Operationand Rehabilitation of Landfills (2010), initially released in October 2001, provides for higher environmentalcontrols in such matters as lining and capping landfills and post closure monitoring and aftercare.EPA has reviewed the Landfill BPEM to incorporate new technology and the latest understanding of improvedmanagement practices at landfills. The revisions to the document also respond to a number of therecommendations of the Victorian Ombudsman’s report Brookland Greens Estate — Investigation intoMethane Gas Leaks, in October 2009. The EPA, industry and others use the guidelines in relation to worksapproval applications and compliance activities. Applicants for a works approval or licence for a landfill mustmeet the objectives and required outcomes set out in the Landfill BPEM guidelines.23