Review of the Waste Avoidance and Resource Recovery Act 2007

Overview

In September 2020, the Government of Western Australia released a discussion paper seeking feedback on the review of the Waste Avoidance and Resource Recovery Act 2007, the principal legislation for waste management in Western Australia.

The Act requires that the legislation be reviewed every five years. The review sought to consider the effectiveness of the legislation in meeting its objectives for reducing waste and encouraging resource recovery and its alignment to the Waste Avoidance and Resource Recovery Strategy 2030.

Key areas of focus in the review included:

• recommendations from the 2016 Auditor General and 2018 Public Accounts Committee reports, which outlined areas where waste management could be improved through potential changes to the Waste Avoidance and Resource Recovery Act 2007
• legislative changes to support the container deposit scheme – Containers for Change – and future extended producer responsibility schemes
• legislative powers relating to the making of subsidiary legislation, and changes to support effective waste management and compliance and enforcement.

The review followed recent consultations on reforming the waste regulatory framework and management approaches. Examples include the release of two waste reform papers – Closing the loop: Waste reforms for a circular economy and the Review of the Waste Levy – in February 2020.

The public was invited to share their views on the effectiveness of the Waste Avoidance and Resource Recovery Act 2007, by making a submission to the Department of Water and Environmental Regulation (the department) by 25 November, 2020.

The department would like to thank all respondents to this consultation. All submissions are located here: 

Alcoa

AMEC

CCAA

City of Canning

City of Joondalup

City of Kwinana

CME

John William Collins

LMS Energy

SMRC

WALGA

WARRRL

Waste Authority

Water Corporation

WMRC

WMRR

The feedback received through this process was considered in the Report on the Review of the Waste Avoidance and Resource Recovery Act 2007 which was tabled in Parliament on 27 October 2021. 

Related documents

Report on the Review of the Waste Avoidance and Resource Recovery Act 2007

Review of the WARR Act discussion paper

Ministerial media statement