Indicator: HS-65 Amounts of hazardous waste
Data
| Waste category | 2001 | 2002 |
|---|---|---|
| Clinical wastes | 38 653 | 53 048 |
| Wastes from the production of pharmaceutical products | 632 | 605 |
| Wastes pharmaceuticals, drugs, medicines | 2 874 | 3 033 |
| Wastes from the production of biocides and phytopharmaceuticals | 991 | 885 |
| Wastes from the manufacture and use of wood preserving chemicals | 325 | 897 |
| Wastes from the production and use of organic solvents | 4 971 | 4 709 |
| Waste mineral oils | 65 079 | 49 044 |
| Waste oil emulsions, mixtures | 152 543 | 155 755 |
| Waste containing PCBs, and/or PCTs and/or PBBs | 907 | 990 |
| Waste tarry residues from refining, distillation, and any pyrolytic treatment | 2 590 | 1 601 |
| Wastes from production and use of inks, dyes, pigments, paints, lacquers, varnish | 51 943 | 38 751 |
| Wastes from the production and use of resins, latex, plasticizers, glues/adhesives | 14 584 | 9 402 |
| Waste chemical substances (not identified and/or new) from R&D or teaching activities | 1 085 | 2 253 |
| Wastes of an explosive nature, not subject to other legislation | - | 2 |
| Wastes from the production and use of photographic chemicals and processing materials | 7 889 | 5 936 |
| Wastes from surface treatment of metals and plastics | 5 608 | 5 326 |
| Residues from industrial waste disposal operations | 23 141 | 37 648 |
| Other hazardous wastes | 276 296 | 272 530 |
Source: Department of the Environment and Heritage 2004, Generation of hazardous wastes (tonnes)2001 & 2002, Department of the Environment and Heritage, Canberra.
| Capital Cities | Rest of Australia | Australia-wide | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ('000) | % | ('000) | % | ('000) | % | ||||||
| March 2003 | |||||||||||
| Garden chemicals or their containers | 606.8 | 13.0 | 437.9 | 14.9 | 1044.7 | 13.7 | |||||
| Paint products or their containers | 773.3 | 16.6 | 530.4 | 18.1 | 1303.7 | 17.1 | |||||
| Metal cleaners or their containers | 222.0 | 4.8 | 189.5 | 6.5 | 411.6 | 5.4 | |||||
| Oven cleaners or their containers | 924.3 | 19.8 | 698.7 | 23.8 | 1623.0 | 21.3 | |||||
| Fluorescent tubes or globes | 855.3 | 18.3 | 628.5 | 21.4 | 1483.8 | 19.5 | |||||
| Household batteries | 2826.8 | 60.6 | 1906.7 | 64.9 | 4733.5 | 62.2 | |||||
| Car batteries | 685.5 | 14.7 | 488.1 | 16.6 | 1173.6 | 15.4 | |||||
| Motor oil | 1289.6 | 27.6 | 861.5 | 29.3 | 2151.1 | 28.3 | |||||
| Medicines, drugs or ointments | 1667.4 | 35.7 | 1009.4 | 34.4 | 2676.8 | 35.2 | |||||
| Did not dispose of items listed | 902.0 | 19.3 | 455.9 | 15.5 | 1357.9 | 17.9 | |||||
| Total households | 4667.8 | 100.0 | 2937.4 | 100.0 | 7605.2 | 100.0 | |||||
| March 2000 | |||||||||||
| Garden chemical or their containers | 630.0 | 14.1 | 420.3 | 14.9 | 1050.4 | 14.4 | |||||
| Paint products or their containers | 726.1 | 16.2 | 466.0 | 16.6 | 1192.1 | 16.3 | |||||
| Metal cleaners or their containers | 261.1 | 5.8 | 184.3 | 6.6 | 445.5 | 6.1 | |||||
| Oven cleaners or their containers | 1012.3 | 22.6 | 715.1 | 25.4 | 1727.4 | 23.7 | |||||
| Fluorescent tubes or globes | 823.4 | 18.4 | 598.2 | 21.3 | 1421.7 | 19.5 | |||||
| Household batteries | 2443.4 | 54.6 | 1720.0 | 61.1 | 4163.4 | 57.1 | |||||
| Car batteries | 575.5 | 12.8 | 503.3 | 17.9 | 1078.8 | 14.8 | |||||
| Motor oil | 547.0 | 12.2 | 487.9 | 17.3 | 1034.9 | 14.2 | |||||
| Medicines drugs or ointments | 1715.9 | 38.3 | 1063.7 | 37.8 | 2779.6 | 38.1 | |||||
| Did not dispose of items listed | 1080.6 | 24.1 | 517.3 | 18.4 | 1597.9 | 21.9 | |||||
| Total households | 4479.1 | 100.0 | 2813.4 | 100.0 | 7292.6 | 100.0 | |||||
| March 1996 | |||||||||||
| Garden chemical or their containers | 259.5 | 6.4 | 207.1 | 7.9 | 466.6 | 7.0 | |||||
| Paint products or their containers | 477.0 | 11.8 | 292.5 | 11.2 | 769.5 | 11.5 | |||||
| Metal cleaners or their containers | 135.0 | 3.3 | 96.9 | 3.7 | 231.9 | 3.5 | |||||
| Oven cleaners or their containers | 430.3 | 10.6 | 292.1 | 11.2 | 722.4 | 10.8 | |||||
| Fluorescent tubes or globes | 406.4 | 10.0 | 284.2 | 10.9 | 690.5 | 10.4 | |||||
| Household batteries | 674.9 | 16.6 | 404.2 | 15.5 | 1079.1 | 16.2 | |||||
| Car batteries | 468.8 | 11.6 | 354.8 | 13.6 | 823.6 | 12.4 | |||||
| Motor oil | 381.8 | 9.4 | 272.0 | 10.4 | 653.8 | 9.8 | |||||
| Medicines drugs or ointments | 806.8 | 19.9 | 514.3 | 19.7 | 1321.2 | 19.8 | |||||
| Did not dispose of items listed | 2154.1 | 53.1 | 1355.2 | 51.9 | 3509.3 | 52.6 | |||||
| Total households | 4057.4 | 100.0 | 2610.6 | 100.0 | 6667.9 | 100.0 | |||||
Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics 2005, Hazardous waste items disposed of by households1996-2003, Australian Bureau of Statistics, Canberra.
| Garden chemicals | Paint products | Metal cleaners | Oven cleaners | Fluorescent tubes/globes | Household batteries | Car batteries | Motor oil | Pharmaceuticals | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| With usual garbage collection | 71.2 | 52.1 | 76.7 | 90.4 | 81.7 | 93.0 | 5.4 | 7.2 | 53.5 |
| Special service from house | 7.6 | 10.6 | 6.8 | 3.1 | 4.5 | 0.7 | 10.2 | 3.0 | 0.5 |
| Dump - general area | 6.7 | 14.9 | 6.5 | 3.3 | 6.0 | 2.8 | 5.1 | 4.9 | 1.0 |
| Dump - special area | 7.8 | 15.3 | 5.0 | 0.7 | 1.6 | 1.1 | 17.9 | 17.5 | 0.4 |
| Central collection point | 3.0 | 3.2 | 1.2 | 0.3 | 0.8 | 0.7 | 8.0 | 5.8 | 2.1 |
| Poured down the drain | 0.4 | 0.6 | 0.2 | 0.1 | - | - | - | 0.3 | 23.9 |
| Taken to a business or shop | 1.2 | 1.0 | 0.7 | 0.1 | 2.2 | 0.9 | 46.2 | 43.3 | 23.5 |
| Buried them | 0.8 | 0.9 | 1.4 | 0.5 | 0.8 | 0.5 | 0.2 | 2.3 | 1.0 |
| Other | 3.8 | 4.0 | 2.5 | 2.1 | 2.9 | 0.6 | 7.7 | 16.7 | 2.0 |
Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics 2000, Environmental Issues: People's Views and Practices, ABS, Canberra, p. 16.
What the data mean
In 2002 Australia generated 272 530 tonnes of hazardous wastes as defined under the Basel Convention. More than half (155 755 tonnes) of the wastes belonged to the waste oil, emulsions, mixtures category.
There has been a dramatic increase in the proportion of households that dispose of hazardous household chemicals and their containers properly from only 47% of households in 1996 to 82% in 2003.
The bulk of the household hazardous materials, except car batteries, motor oil and pharmaceuticals, were disposed of by households with usual garbage collection. More than half the amount of pharmaceutical wastes were also disposed of along with household garbage while a little less than a quarter was taken to a business or shop for disposal. More than 40% of car batteries and motor oil wastes were taken to a business or shop for disposal.
Data Limitations
Hazardous waste movement in Australia is monitored only in relation to the Basel Convention and the data reported here relates to the monitoring of import and export of hazardous material. There is no systematic monitoring of hazardous wastes produced and disposed by households in Australia.
Issues for which this is an indicator and why
Human Settlements — Pressures created by human settlements on the environment - Waste
Quantities of hazardous waste is one indicator for the pressure of waste from human settlements on the environment.
Other indicators for this issue:
- HS-53 Total solid waste produced and disposed
- HS-66 Gaseous emissions from waste
- LD-21 Area of land used for landfill
- LD-22 Rate of violations of residue levels in harvested products
- LD-37 Emissions from activities that derive contributions from the land
- IW-12 Catchment nitrogen and phosphorus load
- IW-14 Volume of sewage discharge to surface waters by treatment category (primary, secondary, tertiary)
- IW-15 Volume of sewage discharged to land
- CO-23 Aquaculture: volume of discharged sediments and nutrients
- CO-27 Number, frequency, extent and volume of oil spills from all sources
- CO-28 Quantity of discharges of different substances from humans activities to coastal and marine waters
- CO-51 Quantity of sewerage and ballast water dumped by shipping
Further Information
- Australia's Environment: Issues and Trends, 2003
- United Nations Environment programme - Secretariat of the Basel Convention
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