Education is key to addressing an increasingly urgent national waste crisis which is choking landfills and driving up costs to the public, according to an expert at Southern Cross University.
The solution is not to create more landfill capacity, but to help people drastically reduce the waste leaving their properties, according to Faculty of Education Executive Dean Professor Amy Cutter-Mackenzie-Knowles.
"The reason this crisis is spiralling out of control is simple," she said.
"People are consuming far too much and 70 per cent of what is going to landfill could be dealt with at home – through recycling or composting organics."
Professor Cutter-Mackenzie-Knowles is co-leader of the Sustainability, Environment and the Arts in Education (SEAE) Research Centre and a researcher with the University's ZeroWaste Research Impact Cluster , which brings the focus of a range of academic disciplines to bear on one of the world's truly wicked problems.
Professor Cutter-Mackenzie-Knowles was responding to a recent New South Wales Government announcement that Sydney landfill was nearing capacity, raising the prospect of reduced kerbside collection or trucking city waste to regional areas.
"This is not an issue exclusive to Sydney – the situation is not uncommon across the country," Professor Cutter-Mackenzie-Knowles said.
"It was not so long ago Coffs Harbour was transporting waste to Queensland because its tip was at capacity.
"City of Gold Coast has flagged that not only will existing landfills be at capacity in 10 years, but there are also no suitable alternate sites for landfill in the region.
"Recycling rates have stagnated over the past decade, and we have this perverse situation where environmental impacts are compounding – we are burning fossil fuel to transport waste to landfill elsewhere, where it generates methane, which contributes to climate change. And at an additional financial burden to the community."
The University's ZeroWaste research cluster draws on a range of experts from geochemistry, environmental science, engineering, business and education.
It is running a series of specific studies – such as how to deal with single-use plastics in meat production – through to the ReCirculator, a program which engages businesses in Northern New South Wales with solutions for the circular economy. This includes reducing waste or taking waste from one process and using it to add value in another.
Professor Cutter-Mackenzie-Knowles said education should be at the heart of the issue and there was clear evidence of the success of school-based programs, such as Victoria's Waste Wise Schools and WasteSorted Schools in WA.
They had been successful in embedding better sustainability practices at a community level including planning and delivering waste reduction.
"Schools are a very powerful place to support community-level change," she said. "What we don't have is a consistent approach for policy or programs at a state or national level.
"There are very good examples of schools creating positive change in the way staff and students embrace a culture of sustainability, but these are usually contained at a local level, in partnership with community groups or local government."
Professor Amy-Cutter-Mackenzie-Knowles urged the NSW Government to consider education programs as part of its response to the situation in Sydney.
"Without that, you are working at the wrong end of the problem," Professor Amy-Cutter-Mackenzie-Knowles said.
"If we can encourage people to share responsibility for this issue, to consume less, sort their recycling and keep organics out of the bin, we'd have a fraction of the problem at the kerbside."
