2012
Hyder Consulting for the Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities, 2012
About the report
This study was commissioned to support work on the National Waste Policy: Less Waste, More Resources. The scope of the National Waste Policy covers solid, liquid, gaseous and hazardous waste. Liquid waste was identified as an area with no national data compiled.
This Liquid Waste Assessment Report was commissioned to assess the data and information on liquid waste in Australia. The main aims of the report were to:
- assess the availability of liquid waste data and identify significant data gaps
- document the different definitions and classifications of liquid waste
- describe the key liquid waste management pathways (from generation through to recovery or disposal)
- analyse the extent to which liquid waste is counted in solid waste data
- estimate the amount of hazardous liquid waste in solid hazardous waste data.
The report found that while some significant data gaps exist, there is enough data and information on liquid waste to provide an evidence base for government and industry stakeholders.
Other findings were that liquid waste classifications and definitions are reasonably consistent nationally for sewage and trade waste, but less so for hazardous liquid waste. Hazardous liquid waste has a range of definitions across jurisdictions; however, the hazardous nature of these wastes is recognised in the definitions.
The key liquid waste management pathways were similar across jurisdictions in terms of what and where it is generated, where waste is moved to and where and how it is treated.