Environment Protection (Amendment) Act 2006
- Environment and Resource Efficiency Plans
- Metropolitan waste management reforms
- Plastic bags
- Changes to the scheduled premises and licensing system
- Pollution Abatement Notices
- Enforceable undertakings
- Clean up notices
- Increased levies for prescribed industrial waste.
The Victorian Government’s Environment Protection (Amendment) Act 2006, passed by Parliament in August 2006, brings in a range of changes to the Environment Protection Act 1970.
These changes strengthen EPA's role in helping Victorians to live sustainably, and help EPA achieve its purpose of protecting, caring for and improving the environment.
In addition, the legislative changes make some key reforms to waste management to keep Victoria at the forefront of resource efficiency.
The intent of the changes is outlined in the Second reading speech (
Adobe PDF file from Victorian Parliament website - p. 2504), which was presented to Parliament by the then Minister for Environment, Mr John Thwaites, on 20 July 2006.
A summary of the key legislative changes follows.
Environment and Resource Efficiency Plans (EREP)
From 1 January 2008 all commercial and industrial sites in Victoria that use more than 100 TJ of energy and/or 120 ML of water in a financial year need to prepare a plan that identifies actions to reduce energy and water use and waste generation. Each site that exceeds one or more thresholds must register with EPA, prepare a plan, implement actions with a payback period of three year or less, and report on their performance annually.
Metropolitan waste management reforms
Victoria has achieved high levels of resource recovery that are keeping valuable and usable materials out of landfill. Regional Waste Management Groups (RWMGs) have played an important role in this success by forming effective partnerships between local governments and state agencies.
Victoria’s Towards Zero Waste strategy builds on these achievements and sets the bar higher – aiming to both reduce waste generation and increase the rate of resource recovery. The metropolitan waste management reforms introduce some key changes that will strengthen the partnership between state and local governments to meet the challenges of Towards Zero Waste.
These reforms introduce a new metropolitan wide waste and resource recovery planning framework and a new organisation to work in partnership with the 30 metropolitan councils to plan, coordinate and deliver improved resource efficiency.
The four Regional Waste Management Groups (RWMGs) in metropolitan Melbourne are to be replaced with a new statutory body – the Metropolitan Waste Management Group (MWMG).
Merging the existing RWMGs and harnessing the collective buying power of councils will give the MWMG better access to emerging waste management technologies. This enables significant increases in the amount of waste that can be reused and recycled, rather than going to landfill.
The MWMG will complement and support metropolitan councils in their role of providing waste management services to their local communities and determining the approach that best meets their needs and circumstances.
A new metropolitan-wide strategic waste and resource recovery plan is to be established. This plan will have three key components:
- The Metropolitan Plan – a strategic analysis of the patterns and trends in the generation and composition of waste and recoverable resources setting the key directions for resource efficiency for the next 20-30 years.
- The Municipal Solid Waste Infrastructure Schedule – an assessment of the needs, priorities and general preferred location for municipal solid waste infrastructure facilities (other than landfill) for the next 5-10 years.
- The Metropolitan Landfill Schedule – an assessment of the needs, priorities and management requirements for waste disposal landfills for the next 5-10 years.
Plastic bags
The Environment Protection Act 1970 has been amended to give the Minister for Environment the power to make future regulations banning the free provision of plastic bags.
Under any future regulations made with this power, if retailers wanted to continue providing plastic bags to customers, they would be required to charge a minimum prescribed fee (possibly 10c per bag) – and must make that price transparent to the customer.
Appropriate exemptions would apply, for example, where a bag is required for health and safety reasons such as bait bags or bags for fresh foods, and in developing the regulations consideration will be given to exemptions for small businesses, biodegradeable plastic bags and other purposes.
Plastic bag waste can threaten wildlife, cause drains to block and overflow and create amenity problems. For these reasons, plastic bag litter continues to be a prominent community issue.
In October 2003, Environment Ministers around Australia agreed to phase-out lightweight plastic shopping bags by the end of 2008.
Through voluntary schemes, large supermarket retailers have achieved a 41 per cent reduction in plastic bag use based on 2002 consumption levels, but 1.1 billion bags are still consumed annually in Victoria.
The amendment gives the Environment Minister the power to make future regulations banning the free provision of plastic bags if further reductions are not achieved through voluntary action.
Changes to the scheduled premises and licensing system
Works approvals and licensing of industrial and waste management facilities that have the potential for significant environmental impact are key tools for environment protection established by the Act. These tools operate well, but opportunities have been identified for improving their operation in order to deliver better outcomes for the environment and to lower administration and compliance costs.
As part of the review of the Environment Protection (Scheduled Premises and Exemptions) Regulations 1996, three key initiatives have been introduced by the Amendment Act to improve the operation of works approvals and licences.
Firstly, at the request of a licensee, EPA will have the capacity to amalgamate two or more licences for different premises held by the same licensee, into a single ‘corporate licence’. Licence amalgamation is voluntary, not mandatory, and will help EPA and businesses streamline licence development, monitoring and management processes.
This will benefit many businesses with more than one licence, by enabling the integration of environmental issues into the broader corporate group, rather than on a site-by-site basis. Companies will have the flexibility to invest in environmental improvements across their whole business in a more cost-efficient and effective way.
Secondly, uniform reporting requirements for all licensees will be introduced when the new regulations are made. Licensees will be able to report on compliance with a licence in a single 'performance statement', submitted once a year. This will move away from the different reporting requirements currently contained in individual licences. Where a licensee’s performance does not meet licence conditions, a summary of failings and actions taken or proposed to address that failure will accompany the statement.
The proposed amendment makes it an offence for a licensee to fail to submit a performance statement by the required date, or to provide false or misleading information to EPA, or to conceal information from EPA.
These changes, which have come about through consultation with current licensees, are designed to create administrative savings and reduce compliance complexity.
However, standard reporting will not impact on a licensee’s obligation to comply with its licence conditions, take and keep monitoring data and make that data available to EPA on request.
Finally, in order to simplify the licensing structure, the existing six classifications of scheduled premises have been replaced with a single definition of ‘scheduled premises’.
Pollution Abatement Notices (PANs)
The Environment Protection Act 1970 now enables a single Pollution Abatement Notice (PAN) to be issued to set requirements or direct actions be taken at multiple premises.
Under the current system, if a business operates at multiple premises, each with the same environmental problem, each site must be issued with a separate notice. Now, one PAN can be issued to multiple premises of the same business.
This change will enable PANs to more efficiently address emerging product stewardship and resource efficiency issues (for example, in support of the National Packaging Covenant), which tend to be company wide, rather than single-site based. The change will also improve EPA’s capacity to use PANs for direct pollution issues, for example by requiring stormwater and erosion controls at building and construction sites.
Enforceable undertakings
A new enforcement tool, known as an 'enforceable undertaking', is now available for EPA to use when a contravention of the Act occurs.
An enforceable undertaking is a voluntary, negotiated written promise or set of promises to carry out various tasks as part of a settlement for contravening the Act. In all circumstances, enforceable undertakings will be voluntary agreements, and can only be entered into with the agreement of both EPA and the business and/or person who has breached the Act.
If an undertaking is withdrawn, EPA can use other enforcement options as appropriate. If an undertaking is breached, EPA can apply to the Magistrates' Court for its enforcement.
Guidelines on the development, use and enforcement of undertakings will be prepared and published by EPA.
The ability of EPA to agree on measures to make amends for a breach of the Act with the offender enables issues to be resolved efficiently, without the need for costly and time-consuming court proceedings.
Guidelines as to how enforceable undertakings will be developed and applied are currently under development and will be released for public comment in the near future.
Enforceable undertakings have been adopted and used successfully by a number of other agencies including Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC), Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), Consumer Affairs Victoria and the NSW Department of Environment and Conservation.
Clean up notices
Notices issued under section 62A of the Act (commonly known as ‘clean up notices’) are the key mechanism used to direct the clean up or management of contaminated sites and groundwater. Clean up notices can be issued to the occupier of the contaminated site or to the polluter. Under the changes to the Act, EPA is now empowered to require a parent or controlling company to accept responsibility for cleaning up pollution caused by a subsidiary in appropriate cases.
The change enables EPA to issue a clean up notice to a parent company where its subsidiary, associated entity or related entity caused pollution, and where:
- the parent company had requisite control over, and was aware of the polluting activities of the subsidiary, and
- the parent company did not take all reasonable steps to prevent the polluting activity of the subsidiary.
Requiring accountability by parent companies will ensure previous polluters pay for old pollution (strengthening the application of the Principles of Environment Protection) and will also help prevent new pollution by giving companies an incentive to manage environmental risks before they become offences.
In addition, the amendment clarifies that a notice issued under section 62A of the Act can require clean up and/or on-going management measures to be undertaken at a site.
Increased levies for prescribed industrial waste
Prescribed industrial waste (PIW) is produced from the manufacture of goods and services we use every day. It is generated by activities such as petroleum refining, chemicals manufacture, metals smelting and auto manufacturing.
The Amendment Act introduces increased levies for the disposal of PIW to landfill and introduces differential levies reflecting the level of hazard posed by different classes of PIW. This amendment is intended to accelerate the drive towards waste avoidance, reuse and recycling and will increase the support programs available to help industry reduce waste disposal. Levy revenue will be reinvested in programs to support industry to avoid the generation of PIW or to find safe re-use alternatives to disposal.
Effective 1 July 2007, new landfill levies will be introduced for prescribed industrial waste as follows:
| Prescribed industrial waste disposed to landfill | Amount until 30 June 2007 ($/tonne) | Amount as at 1 July 2007 ($/tonne) |
|---|---|---|
| Category B – includes wastes from manufacturing industries and contaminated soils | 26 | 130 |
| Category C – includes wastes which pose a low hazard from manufacturing industries and level contaminated soils | 26 | 50 |
| Packaged waste asbestos – levy remains unchanged to encourage safe handling and disposal of asbestos | 26 | 30 |
In January 2007, the Government announced further increases to landfill levies to take effect from 1 July 2008. Full details on current and future levy rates are available.