The State Government of New South Wales, Australia has issue a consultation paper on resource conservation, which paints a vision about what each of us would be doing in a world that more actively conserved resources and avoided waste. The document from the Department of Environment & Conservation (DEC, formerly Resource NSW) helps us understand our current performance and the challenges we face and identifies possible actions and issues which we all - industry, governments and individuals need to debate and prioritise.

Executive summary

Why this paper

In the Waste Avoidance and Resource Recovery Strategy 2003, (the Strategy) we said that we would produce a waste avoidance plan to support the achievement of waste avoidance in NSW. This paper is the first step in that process. As each sector knows its own business best, we want to discuss what can be done to produce and consume more efficiently. Results of discussions will be incorporated as part of the review of the Strategy, which commences at the end of 2004.

What this paper is about

We all know what recycling is and how to participate in it. This paper is about a relatively new action area of waste avoidance - an area that few of us understand well. It seeks to engage industry, consumers and governments in identifying the key actions that will minimise the amount of resources used to produce goods and services and get maximum value from the resources used.

What we know so far

We did a preliminary survey in mid-2003 to find out what is being done to avoid waste and what some of the problems and barriers are. We found that there is limited understanding in the wider community on what exactly resource efficiency and waste avoidance is all about. Despite the efforts of some companies, Councils, individuals and community groups, our data shows that the amount of waste that is being disposed of is increasing. Economic growth, higher consumption, design and production inefficiencies, material intense lifestyles, and limited product or material reuse are some of the reasons for this. At the production end we need to understand how best to promote and support a greater focus on the redesign of products and processes for better resource efficiency during manufacture, transport, and use. This issue is equally applicable to the building and construction sectors. At the consumption end we need to explore how consumers can support resource efficient products through informed purchasing and use decisions. The transport, distribution and retail sectors can leverage their position to influence decisions made by producers and consumers, while also taking measures to reduce, in particular, packaging waste