Communiqués
Environment Protection and Heritage Council
3 December 2004, Teleconference
Proposal for a strengthened National Packaging Covenant
Meeting today by teleconference, Australia's Environment and Heritage Ministers received a proposal from the National Packaging Covenant Council for a strengthened National Packaging Covenant. The covenant is a voluntary agreement between government and industry, including 610 individual companies, that aims to protect the environment from the impacts of packaging waste. Ministers also considered issues connected with several National Environment Protection Measures and released a discussion paper on co-regulatory approaches to product stewardship.
National Packaging Covenant
Ministers received a proposal from the National Packaging Covenant Council for a strengthened covenant to replace the existing agreement which expires in 2005 and agreed to release a regulatory impact statement on the amended covenant and other options for public consultation. Ministers acknowledged efforts to strengthen the current draft but highlighted the need to incorporate real targets to measure the achievements of a future covenant term. Ministers have asked officials to consult with NGO's local government, and industry to develop overarching targets prior to a decision on the Covenant being considered at the next meeting of Council which is proposed for April 2005. Ministers endorsed the need for broad community acceptance of the work of Covenant Council, and request that the Covenant Council agree to appoint a community representative to sit on that Council as a fully partipating member, from the commencement of the next covenant term.
Ministers will meet in April to decide on the future of the covenant. In the meantime, they agreed to issue a notice of intention to amend the National Environment Protection Measure for Used Packaging Materials. This notice is a first step in considering statutory support for the National Packaging Covenant.
National Pollutant Inventory and greenhouse emissions reporting
Reporting of emissions was also high on the Council's agenda, with Ministers agreeing to review the National Pollutant Inventory to enable community, industry, governments and researchers to keep a closer eye on pollution.
Ministers directed officials to carry out a review of the National Pollutant Inventory, and resolved to "direct EPH Standing Committee to bring forward to the next meeting of Council proposed statutory resolutions and a project plan to commence the variation of the NPI NEPM to include greenhouse gas emissions" for consideration by Council in April 2005, to ensure that the outcomes of the review are not delayed.
In addition, other options for streamlined company reporting of greenhouse emissions are being examined by the Council in cooperation with the Ministerial Council on Energy. The outcomes of these processes will enable Council to select the most appropriate policy options for greenhouse reporting.
Movement of Controlled Waste and assessment of site contamination
The environment and human health will also be better protected from the movement of wastes across the country with a change by the Council to the National Environment Protection Measure for the Movement of Controlled Waste between states and territories. Controlled wastes are those presenting a hazard in storage and transport. The change will streamline the process for transporting recalled pharmaceuticals, recognise the importance of recycling, and ensure that controlled wastes are identified, transported and handled in accordance with environmentally sound practices.
Ministers also agreed to review the National Environment Protection Measure for the Assessment of Site Contamination to ensure that the latest science and most recent technologies are used to assess land that may be contaminated.
Product stewardship co-regulatory framework
Common products enjoyed by Australians, such as car tyres and televisions, could in the future be recycled by the same industries that produced them, under a new approach canvassed in a discussion paper released by Ministers today.
The discussion paper describes how governments could regulate to support the voluntary efforts of industries to improve product design, and to collect and recycle their products. Under the approach described in the discussion paper, producers who did not join an industry recycling scheme would have to achieve at least the same environmental outcomes as their industry competitors, by either running their own recycling scheme or by complying with regulations. In this way no company would be competitively disadvantaged by doing the right thing.
Feedback on the discussion paper will be considered by Ministers next year.
