Waste management in Australia started to be implemented as a modern system by the second half of the 19th century, with its progresses driven by technological and sanitary advances. It is currently regulated at both federal and state level. The Commonwealth's Department of the Environment and Energy is responsible for the national legislative framework.
The waste management has different effects and applications depending on the geographical, demographic and behavioural dynamics which it relates to. A number of reports and campaigns have been promoted.
The system is undergoing a process of reformation to establish a more consistent and circular economy-based legislation, a more reliable database and a stronger, more independent domestic industry. These factors have hampered the development of the industry and interstate relations.
Historical development Pre-European settlement Aboriginal middens are arrangements of bones, shells, ashes and other waste materials, usually related to meal consumption. Most of them are considered as relics of cultural and archaeological relevance. Size can vary and they can occupy entire coastlines for hundreds of metres. Middens have been described as the first forms of dumping sites in Australia. Seashells became an important source of lime in the 1800s and so middens, for example in the Sutherland Shire area, may have been mined for shells.
Most Aborigines conducted a nomadic way of life, and because they were those who moved, and not their "refuses", some of these sites had originated from continuous human presence over hundreds or thousands of years.
The low density population, its ecological footprint and the traits of the Australian environment led to a harmonised system in which waste was not contemplated as, and did not represent, an issue.
1788–1900
Sydney Cove became the place of the first permanent European settlement in Australia on 26 January 1788. In accordance with a study, that is also considered the date in which the country's waste disposal system started to represent a problem.
The period spanning from 1788 to 1850 was characterised by an out-of-sight, out-of-mind mentality towards garbage and waste. The concept was supported by the idea that the geography of Australia, and in particularly its vastness, would have allowed for an infinite time the exploitation of its areas as dumping sites. In most of the cases, residents were asked to independently dispose of their own waste (which was mostly organic) and the general lack of regulations resulted in very low hygienic conditions. These ultimately led to soil and water contamination, conditions that had consequences during the urban expansion in later years.
The initial absence of an industry that could have provided enough resources and materials for the colonies forced high rates of recycling. Household and other early forms of waste that could not be recycled or otherwise reused were left in the streets, dumped in rivers, or collected in the backyard, where acid was used to accelerate decomposition and diminish the smell.
Diaries and journals from travellers and residents in the first decades of Sydney's life reported a "shameful situation", which saw what at that time was a town of 50,000 people covered by various types of waste, flies and mosquitoes. Sydney Harbour was the major dumping site. Getting rid of waste in the sea (sea waste burial) was also a common practice, and beaches were often covered by residuals brought by tides.
The Gadigal clan, one of the original Sydney local communities, used to collect freshwater in a river prior the European colonisation. At the time of Captain Arthur Phillip looking for the ideal settlement site, in 1788, a primary requirement was that of a sufficient freshwater supply, and that river constituted a crucial discriminant in the choice of Sydney. After the arrival of the colonists, the stream has been reported to have become so polluted that it was ordered to be covered with sandstone. The "Tank Stream", as it is now known, still flows beneath Sydney.
Dr Edwin Chadwick, with his publication "Treatise on Fever" (1830), catalysed the reforms of the British health system, but these did not promptly affect the Australian administrations. In the colony, proper hygienic practices -including waste management-, only started in the late years of the 19th century. This shift was partly due to the change in the administration nature of the colonies, which prior to that moment had limited the participation of the public in their affairs. Eventually, a more democratic and representative system was put into effect.
The waste classification system prior to federation in 1901 was not formalised and most refuse was directed to landfills or left in the streets. Exceptions were due to waste sea burials and to limited incineration practices, and required sorting in two additional streams characterised by flammable or sinkable waste. Recycling rates reduced, with only the low income classes inclined in pursuing these practices.
Melbourne was considered the world's dirtiest city in the 19th century. Its water and waste management systems were not able to keep up with the booming in population that followed the gold fever, hence the nickname "Smellbourne". Its hygienic conditions were described as "fearful" in 1847 by the council's Sanitary Committee, which also stated the necessity of building new infrastructures to lessen epidemic risks. Infections and diseases rates were high, compared to those from other world cities like London. Typhoid and diphtheria were not rare and by the 1870s the city serious hygienic issues, reaching high infant mortality rates.
The Royal commission proposed to design a board of works in 1888, which was eventually established in 1890 under the name of Melbourne and Metropolitan Board of Works (MMBW). The scheme that would have reformed the usage (at that time comprehensive of both freshwater supply and sewerage disposal) of Melbourne's Yarra River waters was launched during the depression which hit the city during the 1890s. The initial debt and difficulties did not stop its creation, and the building processes started in 1892.
By the end of the century, most sewage in Australia flowed underground and sewerage systems were integrated in the urban complexes. Professions like rat-catcher and scavenger were fully established and supported recycling and a minimum control over the diffusion of rats.
1900–1960
The councils' political asset renovation of the 19th century contributed only in part to the development of a systematic legislation. The major changes in waste management were driven by the widespread of diseases and epidemics, especially that of the Bubonic plague which affected Sydney at the beginning of the 20th century. The newly gained awareness towards public health allowed urban reorganisation and advances in sanitary standards.
In 1901 Australia gained the independence from the United Kingdom. The lack of a centralised power which the states were exposed to limited the influence that the federation exerted on them. The executive role was exercised locally, by the councils.
Landfills were the primary disposal sites. Incinerators were starting to be adopted as a result of the additional commercial value promoted by technological implementations. Their expensive nature previously led the Sydney council to decline the installation of one of such a plant, in 1889, but the plague which later spread in the area had the effect to reform priorities and justify the expenses.
The first decade of the century saw a rising demand of incinerators. A second accretion in the sector had place in the 1920s and it was largely due to the production of an Australian model, the Reverberatory Refuse Incinerator. In the same decade, the recycling of paper started in Melbourne.
WWII, technological advances and the clean air debate from overseas eventually imposed back landfill disposal over waste burning. During the Second World War the resources demand necessitated a strong recycling strategy, but by the end of the conflict priorities changed and recycling was discarded in favour of landfill disposal. Landfills also benefited from the technological advances acquired from the United States, and more sophisticated plants were built. Hazardous and industrial waste were not known, or either ignored threats, and all wastes formed a general, unique stream that would have eventually ended up in landfill. Since the Fifties the industrial refuses received different attention and their disposal requirements improved. Leachate, the contaminated liquid which percolates through landfill material, was not prevented and this resulted in cases of environmental damages.
1960–1990 The population growth factor in 1871 was 27% in Sydney, 26% in Melbourne and 23% in Adelaide. They reached 56%, 65% and 79% respectively in 1961. The New South Wales capital counted more than 2,000,000 residents; Melbourne was close, having 1,911,000 inhabitants, and Adelaide 587,000. The increase in population boosted land reclamation, and landfill siting began to be more challenging.
Chemical and hazardous traits of waste began to be internalised in the disposal method evaluations since the Sixties, along with an augmented influence and regularisation by the Commonwealth. Standard landfills started not to accept certain types of waste, but these measures did not take into account the escalation of illegal practices which arose as a response (such as clandestine dumping).
The paper and newspaper recycling sector reached a 30% recycling rate. Deposit refunds for drink containers were shut down a decade later, in the 1970s, following the implementation of the recycling industry for bottles.
Public interest towards recycling and environmental protection arose greatly, yet the process of collecting recyclables was finite to specific geographic areas. The Canterbury Council was the first in differentiating the waste sorting into recyclables and household waste, in 1975.
Efforts were made especially for reducing visual pollution and, with it, litter. Clean Up Australia Day was first held in January 1989."Column 8", Sydney Morning Herald, 22 September 1989, p 1 accessed 24 February 2012 via factiva.com (Document smhh000020011117dl9m00tte); "CLEAN Up Australia, which is organising a national clean-up day on January 21, now has 41 groups registered to take part" More people started to recognise the issues related to litter and to the waste management practices, and the government evaluated the return of the deposit refund and the taxation of non-recyclable products. These were ultimately not implemented, except for South Australia. The Lucas Heights Resource Recovery Park in Lucas Heights, established in 1987, is one of Australia's largest waste management and resource recovery facilities. It serves much of Greater Sydney and is the Sydney's only remaining putrescible landfill.
1990s–present
The inappropriateness of the waste management strategies started to be evident in the last decade of the 20th century, with the cities undergoing a process of rapid population growth and the states being unable to contrast unregulated landfills. Landfill was still the preferred disposal method, although incinerators and recycling proposal began to be pondered again as alternatives. Paper and glass differentiated collection were not rare. The adoption of waste levies, recyclables sales and the agreements with various industry sectors allowed the creation of new means of introit. The main constraints were represented by the residents, with the majority not sensitised in the matter.