Martin Tolar, CEO of the Waste Management Association of Australia and Rebecca Brown, WMAA WA Branch President have held meetings with the Western Australian Environment Minister Albert Jacob MLA, and Jason Banks, Director General Department of Environment Regulation (DER), to discuss a range of issues affecting the WA waste and resource recovery industry.
The Minister met with WMAA prior to the tabling of the WARR Act Review report in Parliament that afternoon.
"WMAA is pleased to hear that there are no surprises for our industry in the report. The Association prepared a submission to the review earlier this year and the Branch Committee will now await the delivery of the report into the public arena in order to assess the 'wins' for our members."
The Minister expressed interest in the development of a national end of waste standard. This builds on his recent announcement of a $10m incentive scheme to increase local government use of recycled construction and demolition material in the building of roads, car parks and drains.
DER Director General Jason Banks reaffirmed the important role of WMAA in facilitating industry engagement on regulatory reform and other issues, and acknowledged the need for a stronger connection between waste and infrastructure planning.
"WMAA is positioning waste as an essential service in all state infrastructure planning. The DER seat on the WA Planning Commission, through Mr Banks, provides our industry with the necessary avenue to ensure this is a fundamental feature of planning in WA."