Slide 1 – Title slide
Asbestos disposal – the national picture & local
perspective
Joe Pickin
Blue Environment PTY LTD
Slide 2 – Our Project
ASEA commissioned Blue Environment and Randell Environmental
Consulting to investigate waste data and waste management systems
nationally
• Completed earlier this year
• Method:
‒ collected and analysed data on tonnages and disposal options
‒ reviewed regulatory systems
‒ consulted with states and territories
•
Slide 3 – Data sources
Slide 4 – Data quality limitations
General problems with tracking system data
‒ multiple counting
‒ quality problems
• Uncertainty & variability in how asbestos containing material is
classified (especially contaminated soil)
• Waste from natural disasters?
• Variability in scope of tracking requirements
‒ small loads
‒ concentration of asbestos needed to ‘qualify’ as asbestos waste
•
Slide 5 – Tonnages & trends
Slide 6 – Where is it generated?
Qld data suggests that urban areas generate more per capita
Average annual rates of asbestos waste, 2010-13: Qld local government areas
Slide 7 – Where is it generated?
Average annual rates of asbestos waste, 2005 - 13: Brisbane vs rest of QLD
Slide 8 – Who deals with it?
The proportions of asbestos waste
generators, transporters and receivers
who managed specified quantities of
asbestos waste, Qld, 2000 to 2013, and
the proportions of the total waste
tonnage they managed
Slide 9 – Trend in generator scale
The QLD trend of increasing asbestos quantities appears to be driven by larger projects
Slide 10 – Estimated asbestos stocks and flows
Slide 11 – Tracking systems
Slide 12 – Landfill levies & prices
Slide 13 – Do transfer stations accept asbestos?
Issues: insurance; OHS procedures & training; infrastructure; lack of guidance
Slide 14 – Asbestos disposal problems
•
Remote and rural areas
lack of disposal options
small unlicensed landfills with inadequate infrastructure &
management
• Rural and regional areas
‒ closure of small landfills & replacement with transfer stations that
rarely accept asbestos
• Urban areas
‒ private operators seek cost recovery for onerous management
requirements
‒ council landfills likely to have lower prices due to social obligation
and responsibilities for dumping
‒ displacement from private to council landfills
‒
‒
Slide 15 – Recommendations on asbestos management
Develop nationally preferred positions in relation to:
1. tracking asbestos waste, encompassing threshold quantities and the
sources to which tracking should apply
2. landfill pricing that encourages socially optimal disposal of asbestos
through
‒ the application of landfill levies to asbestos waste
‒ use of landfill licences to require operators of suitable landfills to
accept asbestos based on some agreed pricing system, for example
a standard national gate fee
3. receipt of asbestos waste in areas lacking access to landfill disposal
e.g. amended requirements and guidance to transfer station operators
and/or provision of specialist and potentially temporary mobile
equipment.
Slide 16 – That’s me done
Dr Joe Pickin
0403 562 621
[email protected]
www.blueenvironment.com.au