Delivering on our plan to grow Tasmania’s circular economy

26 August 2021

Roger Jaensch MP

Minister for Environment

The Tasmanian Liberal Government is leading by example and delivering on our commitment to grow Tasmania’s circular economy and prioritise waste management and resource recovery issues in our State.

The 2021-22 Tasmanian Budget highlights the strong action that we are taking and further complements existing commitments being delivered by our Liberal Government, including the introduction of a Container Refund Scheme, a consistent state-wide waste levy, support for commercial composting and phasing out single use and problem plastics in Tasmania by 2025.

We are progressing with our draft Waste Action Plan which provides the foundation for these important reforms to Tasmania’s waste management and resource recovery initiatives. This Budget allows us to build on this strategic work so that we can continue promoting sustainable ways to reprocess and reuse materials that previously would have been buried in the ground.

The Tasmanian Liberal Government remains committed to phasing out single use plastics from government and council facilities and events held on publicly owned land across the state by 2023, as well as our plan to phase out problematic and unnecessary plastics by 2025. This will result in single use plastic products being replaced with alternatives that can be reused again and again. Importantly, the Budget includes an investment of $1 million over the next four years to develop an implementation plan to phase out single use plastics, collaborating with local government and supporting businesses through the transition to address the impacts of plastic in the Tasmanian environment.

In addition to this, we are providing $200,000 for a second Business Resource Efficiency Program to assist Tasmanian businesses to audit and review their use of resources and find ways to achieve improvements.

As we move toward a fully circular economy, we are investing $3 million to partner with industry to invest in a crumb rubber plant to turn end-of-life tyres into products that can be used in the Government’s Road Resurfacing Program from 1 July 2022.

The Tasmanian Liberal Government has also allocated $4.5 million of our circular economy fund from the 2020-21 Budget to invest in improving organics collection and reprocessing infrastructure across Tasmania. This investment will help us reach our target to reduce the volume of organic waste sent to landfill by 50 per cent by 2030. We are investing $3 million in a state-of-the-art composting facility in Northern Tasmania, and the remaining funds will be used to support feasibility and design work for an organic waste solution in the South.

This is a Budget that delivers on our clear plan to build Tasmania’s circular economy and creates opportunities to drive business and industry development in our State - securing Tasmania’s future.