Managing waste is one of the greatest environmental issues facing the community today.

The challenge is to reduce our wastes and in the process, to build business opportunities for recycling, composting and the recovery of wastes, which would otherwise be sent to landfill.

The NSW Waste Avoidance and Resource Recovery Strategy (reviewed in 2006) provides a framework for reducing waste and making better use of our resources. The Strategy identifies four key areas where we must achieve outcomes:

• Avoiding and preventing waste;
• Increased use of renewable and recovered materials;
• Reducing toxicity in products and materials; and
• Reducing litter and illegal dumping.

Our 2020 Vision  

PMHC's ultimate goal is no waste to landfill by 2020. This remains a most ambitious goal despite recent technological advances within the waste industry, and this goal will face regular review. The vision for waste could be encapsulated in the following statement:

"An engaged community working together for sustainable waste management."

We must all play our part for this plan to work.  Householders, businesses, industry, construction workers, schools and others must all do their bit to reduce waste.  In the long run, the achievements we make will not only be measured in dollars but also by the quality of the environment that we leave our children. 

Port Macquarie-Hastings Council has a clear vision for waste management. This vision is that the community will:

• Have a changed attitude to viewing wastes as a resource rather than a problem;
• Adjust their buying and living habits to minimise the amount of waste they produce;
• Have created an environment for developing innovative solutions to avoid generating waste;
• Have created cost-effective methods for recovering resources so that materials can be reused, recycled or reprocessed into valuable products;
• Have created business opportunities dealing in unwanted materials; and
• Take pride in being a community that has a commitment to waste reduction and sustainability.

Follow the link to view Council's Waste Strategy