14 Sep 2021

The City of Burnside is participating in the Buying it Back LGA Circular Procurement Pilot Project with eight other councils to use our combined buying-power to significantly increase demand for recyclable materials in South Australia.

The aim of this project is to improve the sustainability of waste management practices, ensure the ongoing viability of our recycling system and, over time, reduce councils’ waste management costs. The project represents a significant step towards developing local markets and on-shore processing for recyclable materials within Australia and establishing a truly circular economy.

Councils taking part in the pilot project will, through a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), establish systems and processes to:

• Prioritise recycled-content through the procurement process;
• Track the recycled-content purchased by weight; and
• At the end of the 2019/20 year and subsequent years, publicly report on the amount (number of tonnes) of recycled-content products and materials they have purchased under the MOU.

Burnside will seek to increase the purchasing of many products and materials with recycled content. most councils have elected to adopt a target in relation to plastic materials in particular. It is envisaged that following a successful initial set up in 2019/20, the participating councils will adopt rolling targets until they are buying-back recycled plastic materials equivalent to 50% of the weight of plastics collected in their council area.

Recycled products regularly purchased by local government bodies, that participating councils might consider procuring as part of the pilot project, include:

• Office stationary/paper;
• Fixtures (eg. street furniture, drinking fountains, bollards, fencing, decking, garden edging, planter boxes, fitness equipment, wheel stops, speed humps, bins, pipes, signage);
• Construction materials (recycled-content includes recycled asphalt, glass fines, plastic, rubber, toner); and
• Compost.

The outcomes are as follows: