What are the waste management hierarchy and principles?
A.The waste management hierarchy is set out in s10 of the Environmental Protection (Waste Management) Policy 2000. It sets out the preferred order of adoption of certain waste management practices and is a framework for prioritising those practices to achieve the best environmental outcome. From most preferred to least preferred, the practices are: • waste avoidance; • waste re-use; • waste re-cycling; • energy recovery from waste; and • waste disposal. The other principles for managing waste are set out in sections 11, 12 and 13 of the Environmental Protection (Waste Management) Policy 2000. Briefly they are: • the polluter pays principle; • the user pays principle; and • the product stewardship principle.
