Given that Council is now considering how it is going to manage waste in the city it is time that I brought the research I have been doing over the past year to other Aldermen's notice. In fact I have been looking at this and related issues for well over a year now. I have also been networking with community members and others in regard to the issue – specifically the NRM Sustainability group, the NOTrubbish network, along with various individuals including Tasmainan Sustainable Communities and the My Community networks.
I've been the co-author of two websites related to the issue and click on their titles here to access them – the NOTrubbish and the Sustainability Cooperative. The time has now arrived to be proactive and to begin to work towards realising some of the ideas people have been discussing over the year.
If we are to ever get a really sustainable, relevant and appropriate "resource recovery system" anywhere we need to start to work on the issue locally. It is important that we start to think about our so-called "waste" as a resource and to stop thinking about waste as rubbish.
I've been the co-author of two websites related to the issue and click on their titles here to access them – the NOTrubbish and the Sustainability Cooperative. The time has now arrived to be proactive and to begin to work towards realising some of the ideas people have been discussing over the year.
If we are to ever get a really sustainable, relevant and appropriate "resource recovery system" anywhere we need to start to work on the issue locally. It is important that we start to think about our so-called "waste" as a resource and to stop thinking about waste as rubbish.
Alderman Rob Sowards recent notice of motion on a refund for drink containers, is an example of smart thinking, addressing roadside litter where a waste commodity becomes an income stream. We have to change the way we think of waste by considering a name change.
It has been put to me that we must stop calling our tip a “Waste Management Centre.” In many ways it sends the wrong message. When a council spends millions of dollars engineering its waste management infrastructure to ensure its "waste stream" is sent to landfill. In the end it' not a wise thing to do. It is also a very inappropriate way to manage the resources sent to the tip.
All over the world it has been recognised that burying our waste socially and environmentally is delinquent. There are many examples of better understandings of what is needed to change that kind of mindset. Launceston needs to find them and see what fits the local situation and what we can do here and now.
We might think really hard about changing the name of The Waste Management Centre. We could rename it the Tamar Region Resource Recovery Centre – TRRRC – and start to look for support in the region for resource recovery.
In addition Launceston City Council could embrace the Zero Waste idea ... click here for more information. The downside of this is almost impossible to imagine.
Zero Waste is an idea that encourages communities, companies and households to rethink life cycles of the products they use, and look for ways to see them reused. Rubbish sent to landfill would be minimal. The process is similar to the way that resources are reused in nature. Think about it, it's a no brainer really. In industry it involves the making of new products out of rubbish or what we used to think about as rubbish.
We might think really hard about changing the name of The Waste Management Centre. We could rename it the Tamar Region Resource Recovery Centre – TRRRC – and start to look for support in the region for resource recovery.
In addition Launceston City Council could embrace the Zero Waste idea ... click here for more information. The downside of this is almost impossible to imagine.
Zero Waste is an idea that encourages communities, companies and households to rethink life cycles of the products they use, and look for ways to see them reused. Rubbish sent to landfill would be minimal. The process is similar to the way that resources are reused in nature. Think about it, it's a no brainer really. In industry it involves the making of new products out of rubbish or what we used to think about as rubbish.
I believe that what Launceston needs is a community cooperative that plays a major role in the region, region recovering the resources that are currently thought about as rubbish. A draft pupose for such a cooperative has been drafted and I endorse the idea.
