Pollution and Waste Market Considerations
Landfill Costs
Landfill costs are increasing Australia-wide and in Sydney charges are now between 22 and 26% higher than they were 12 months ago.
The following common costs for tipping at landfill sites on the eastern seaboard hint at the challenges involved in setting national targets for diversion of waste from landfill to recycling:
- approximately $135/tonne in Sydney
- approximately $60/tonne in Melbourne; and
- between $40-$42/tonne in Brisbane
When tipping fees are low, the financial incentive to divert is also low. Tipping fees are expected to rise in all jurisdictions and we believe that as they do so, our sophisticated recycling programs will help us keep waste charges for tenants to a minimum.
Waste Has Other Costs
While many of the benefits of waste reduction are difficult to quantify, they are nonetheless substantial. We are generally unable to influence the volume of waste generated in our office buildings as it comes predominantly from tenant activities; however, we do have the ability to influence where it goes. Diversion of waste reduces the harmful chemicals and greenhouse gases released in landfill sites and recycling can reduce the impact of manufacturing.
Kerbside Awareness
Australians are among the best recyclers in the world. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), the proportion of households in Australia that recycle and/or reuse waste has increased from 91% in 1996 to 98% in 2003. In March 2003,about 95% of Australian households recycled waste, 83% reused waste, while only 2% did not recycle or reuse at all. The Victorian Government has statistics showing Victorians recycled a record 53% of the waste stream during the 2003/04 financial year, predominantly from kerbside commingled recycling services.
To us these figures suggest that regardless of the financial materiality of the issue, waste recycling is important to people who work in our buildings because they choose to go to the trouble of recycling at home. We know from regular tenant feedback that many staff working for our tenants take a keen interest in where their waste goes after they place it in the bin.
NABERS Waste
Investa has been involved in the development of the NABERS Waste rating tool, providing advice to the NABERS Office National Administrator on the practicalities of performing ratings and presenting issues for consideration. The rating tool is scheduled to be launched in the coming year.
Click here to find out about our Investment & Asset Management performance
Click here to find out about our Development performance
Case Studies
Scope of Reporting:
The scope of Investa's waste reporting is explained in the reporting protocol summarised in the appendices. We report on all the waste disposed of by our contractors as a service to office tenants, but waste handled by tenants directly, such as secure document destruction or where the tenant has its own recycling service provider, is generally not included. In many of our buildings this means that we are often reporting on the diversion of the general waste collected by our contractors after a significant proportion of highly recyclable office paper has already been diverted, hence providing conservative figures.
Our reporting and targets for the office portfolio until now only related to Commercial and Industrial (C&I) waste streams i.e. the waste from office activities. Construction and Demolition waste data is now being collected from our refurbishment works and reported separately, however, we do not have a complete 12 months of data to rely upon. We do not measure or report on the waste generated by tenants of our industrial buildings because they have their own contracts that meet the specific requirements of their businesses.
Back to Top