Trade waste is industrial and commercial liquid waste discharged to the sewerage system.

Trade waste reform underway

In June 2010, the Minister for Water approved commencement of work to address the recommendations defined in the recent Trade Waste Review. 

The review, completed in early 2010, found that the current regulatory arrangements lack consistency and transparency and that trade waste management objectives are unclear. 

Future directions for trade waste management in Victoria: a review of Victoria’s trade waste management framework (PDF~486kB)

The review shed light on the difference between metropolitan and regional arrangements in trade waste management. While metropolitan customers find the current system slow and inflexible, regional customers find that the system is not open to challenge. 

The following recommendations were made to address these inadequacies.  

• Restate objectives to define where trade waste management should facilitate recycling and enable conflicts arising from objectives to be more readily resolved.
• Continue recent price refinements for treatable trade wastes and encourage water businesses to consider imposing prices on salts and other less treatable substances where appropriate.
• Reform the regulatory system by appointing the Essential Services Commission (ESC) as regulator of trade waste management and introduce regulatory decision making processes that are consistent, open and timely.
• Improve state-wide reporting of data and identify waste streams available for reuse.
• Make information on trade waste agreements, outside of the information available through published technical acceptance standards, more widely available.
• Support and encourage voluntary cleaner production and other partnership programs.

The Department of Sustainability and Environment, in conjunction with the ESC, has begun work on implementing the above tasks with the new regulatory arrangements scheduled to commence on 1 January 2012.