South Australian Numbered Acts

ENVIRONMENT PROTECTION (WASTE REFORM) AMENDMENT ACT 2017 (NO 45 OF 2017) - SECT 5

5—Insertion of sections 4 to 4B

After section 3 insert:

4—Waste

        (1)         For the purposes of this Act, "waste" means—

            (a)         any discarded, dumped, rejected, abandoned, unwanted or surplus matter, whether or not intended for sale or for purification or resource recovery by a separate operation from that which produced the matter; or

            (b)         any matter declared by regulation to be waste for the purposes of this Act (following consultation by the Minister on the regulation with prescribed bodies in accordance with the regulations); or

            (c)         any matter declared by an environment protection policy to be waste for the purposes of this Act,

whether or not of value.

        (2)         However, waste does not include—

            (a)         an approved recovered resource whilst it is being dealt with in accordance with the declaration of that resource—see section 4A

; or

            (b)         anything declared by regulation or an environment protection policy not to be waste for the purposes of this Act,

even though the resource or the thing so declared might otherwise, but for the declaration, fall within the definition of waste in subsection (1)

.

4A—Approved recovered resources

        (1)         The Authority may, by notice in the Gazette, declare that specified matter constitutes an "approved recovered resource" for the purposes of this Act and therefore does not, while it is being dealt with in accordance with the declaration, constitute waste for the purposes of this Act.

        (2)         Regulations may be made in relation to declarations under this section and may, without limiting the generality of subsection (1)

, provide for—

            (a)         the manner and form of applications for declarations; and

            (b)         application fees relating to declarations; and

            (c)         the criteria against which applications will be determined; and

            (d)         the provision of further information by applicants; and

            (e)         the imposition of conditions of declarations; and

            (f)         the term and renewal of declarations; and

            (g)         the grounds for refusing applications; and

            (h)         the variation or revocation of declarations by further notice in the Gazette; and

                  (i)         the circumstances in which declarations may be varied or revoked.

4B—Waste management hierarchy

In this Act, a reference to the "waste management hierarchy" is a reference to an order of priority for the management of waste in which—

            (a)         avoidance of the production of waste; and

            (b)         minimisation of the production of waste; and

            (c)         reuse of waste; and

            (d)         recycling of waste; and

            (e)         recovery of energy and other resources from waste; and

            (f)         treatment of waste to reduce potentially degrading impacts; and

            (g)         disposal of waste in an environmentally sound manner,

are pursued in order with, first, avoidance of the production of waste, and second, to the extent that avoidance is not reasonably practicable, minimisation of the production of waste, and third, to the extent that minimisation is not reasonably practicable, reuse of waste, and so on.