PREFACE
The Waste Account, Australia, Experimental Estimates, 2013 provides a series of experimental tables showing information on the generation and disposal of waste to landfills or to recycling facilities, the supply of recycled materials in the economy and related financial flows. The methodologies and data used in this release will be reviewed and assessed to improve the quality and usefulness of information provided in future waste accounts.
This release is part of a set of integrated environmental-economic accounts currently being published by the ABS that uses the System of Environmental-Economic Accounting (SEEA). The SEEA is a measurement framework being developed by the United Nations Statistics Division that provides a range of metrics on the economy and the environment. In early 2012 the SEEA Central Framework was adopted as an international statistical standard. For further information on environmental-economic accounting please refer to the ABS publication: Completing the Picture - Environmental Accounting in Practice, 2012 (cat. no 4628.0.55.001).
Where possible, this release has been produced in accordance with the SEEA and has followed previous ABS environmental-economic accounting publications utilising this system - Energy Account, Australia 2010-11 (cat. no. 4604.0), Water Account, Australia, 2010-11 (cat. no. 4610.0) and Land Account: Victoria, Experimental Estimates, 2012 (cat. no. 4609.0.55.002).
This Waste Account also aims to contribute to one of the six key directions of Australia’s National Waste Policy:
Providing the evidence - Access by decision makers to meaningful, accurate and current national waste and resource recovery data and information, in order to measure progress and educate and inform the behaviour and the choices of the community.
There were no new statistical collections conducted to provide data for this release. It was compiled from existing data sources from commonwealth, state government agencies and industry associations. Information on the sources of data and how these were used to compile this release is presented in the Explanatory Notes.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The ABS would like to thank the organisations that assisted in the preparation of this release, in particular the Australian Government Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Populations and Communities.