The Western Australian Local Government Association says Perth may be drowned in its own rubbish if a waste management body is not appointed; refuse from the rapidly growing population is reportedly getting out of hand.

WALGA President Mayor Troy Pickard has announced a waste management model developed by the WA Local Government Association’s Waste Vision Workshop Group. The plan focuses on the key aspects required to deal with municipal waste in the future, and claims to have the ‘integrated approach’ required to meet the Perth region’s needs. 

Mr Pickard said “if we are to reach the targets set in the Waste Strategy of reducing municipal waste to landfill by 50 per cent by 2015 and 65 per cent by 2020 and provide the modern infrastructure needed to deal with expected waste generation, then it is critical that a more coordinated approach is agreed and delivered.”

“The Waste Vision presents a wonderful opportunity for the State Government to work in collaboration with Local Government and set a new benchmark for an efficient and effective waste management system in Perth,” Pickard said, “an independent statutory body overseeing an integrated system will be able to achieve much more than the current system, such as aggregating recycling activities to be able to negotiate better outcomes in commercial markets for recycled products.”

Pickard has formed a crew to boldly explore the Waste Authority, meetings set for next month should begin to make it so.