Resource recovery

Northern Inland Regional Waste (NIRW) is a voluntary local government group that addresses waste management issues on a regional level. The group's membership consists of twelve (12) Local Government councils in the North West and New England regions, including Armidale Regional Council.

NIRW's focus is to facilitate sustainable business development in the New England & North West region of New South Wales that provides solutions to dealing with the waste we generate. The activity will result in stronger relationships, greater awareness and increased economic and employment benefits for the region.

For further information visit the Northern Inland Regional Waste website.

The NSW Environment Protection Authority is the primary environmental regulator for New South Wales. As environmental stewards they are committed to a sustainable future for NSW, focusing their regulatory activities on improving outcomes that lead to a healthy, sustainable environment and a thriving society.

The Waste Management and Resource Recovery Association of Australia (WMRR) is the peak body that leads the success of the waste management and resource recovery sector. WMMR follow 3 guiding principles on circular economy, Waste and Resource Recovery (WARR) infrastructure, and WARR industry engagement from community to government.

The highest priority, avoiding and reducing the generation of waste, encourages the community, industry and government to reduce the amount of virgin materials extracted and used. The goal is to maximise efficiency and avoid unnecessary consumption through behaviours such as:

• selecting items with the least packaging or that require the fewest resources to produce
• avoiding disposable goods or single-use materials
• buying products that are re-usable, repairable, refillable, recycled or recyclable
• using leftover food rather than throwing it away.

The second priority, resource recovery, maximises options for re-use, recycling, reprocessing and energy recovery.

Where avoiding and reducing waste is not possible, the next most preferred option is to re-use the materials without further processing, avoiding the costs of energy and other resources required for recycling. For example, many household and industrial items can be repaired, re-used, sold or donated to charities.

Re-use (without further processing) and recycling (processing waste materials to make the same or different products) keeps materials in the productive economy and benefits the environment by decreasing the need for new materials and waste absorption. 

Where further recycling is not feasible, it may be possible to recover the energy from the material and feed that back into the economy where this is acceptable to the community.

Some materials may be inappropriate to re-use, recycle or recover for energy and instead require treatment to stabilise them and minimise their environmental or health impacts.

Finally, the waste hierarchy recognises that some types of waste, such as hazardous chemicals or asbestos, cannot be safely recycled and direct treatment or disposal is the most appropriate management option.