Waste and marine debris in remote northern Australian communities

The communities of remote northern Australia face significant challenges in waste management. Conventional challenges include low public or private investment in waste management, high transport costs, intermittent seasonal access, and a wet-dry climate that makes infrastructure maintenance and scaling-up waste and debris management to cover vast areas of un-serviced land and coastlines particularly challenging. Many coastal communities, particularly those in the Gulf of Carpentaria also have the additional burden of a large volume of rubbish from external sources such as shipping and foreign fishing washing up on remote beaches.

This project will review the current status of waste management in remote communities of northern Australia, and seek examples of best practice models nationally and internationally to improve waste disposal and management. The project will then work with two remote northern Australian communities in a collaborative on-ground case study.

• Desktop study documenting management bodies across remote north Australia and reviewing existing initiatives that target waste reduction and disposal;
• Report from two case study communities documenting their waste profile, current waste management approach, waste management gaps and an assessment of the feasibility (including cost effectiveness) of a range of possible actions/solutions;
• Information and appropriate communications material for communities on waste management issues currently impacting them and local responses to the management issues.

This project looked at three case study communities in Cape York and the Gulf of Carpentaria.