SA Disaster Waste Management Guidelines
Written by the Rawtec consultancy team in consultation with South Australian stakeholders, for Green Industries SA, funded by the State Emergency Management Committee through the National Disaster Resilience Program. Version 2.0, issued 6 June 2022.
Summary published
After a bushfire or a flood, someone has to decide what happens to the debris. That decision gets made in days, under pressure, by people whose main job is something else.
These guidelines exist so that decision does not have to be invented from scratch each time. They cover the response and recovery phases in South Australia and are built on what happened in previous events plus consultation with the agencies who were there.
Rawtec wrote them, with Mike Haywood Sustainable Resource Solutions, Resilient Organisations, Resource Advisory, Resources and Waste Advisory Group and TOMAC consulting. Rawtec and Mike Haywood updated them in 2021.
From first assessment to reviewing outcomes
Waste streams covered individually
Structural material in an average SA dwelling
Of pre-1980s SA homes contain asbestos
What the guidelines set out
Eight steps, in order
Undertake an initial waste assessment. Identify short-term support for acute issues. Oversee that support. Complete a detailed assessment. Identify longer-term recovery needs. Develop and resource a disaster waste management programme. Oversee its implementation. Review the outcomes.
What one destroyed house actually weighs
An average South Australian dwelling holds 165.8 tonnes of structural material across 207.3 cubic metres: 144.0 tonnes of concrete, brick, stone and footings, 9.4 tonnes of roof tiles, 7.9 tonnes of timber, 1.7 tonnes of plasterboard, 1.5 tonnes of fittings, 1.4 tonnes of metal and 0.1 tonnes of asbestos sheeting. Contents add another 4.3 tonnes, mostly furniture.
Asbestos is the default assumption, not the exception
Over 61% of residential and 48% of commercial buildings in South Australia built before the mid-1980s contain asbestos. Buildings after that date may still contain it. Only post-1990 construction is generally unlikely to.
Some things cannot wait a week
The guidelines sort acute issues by how fast they have to be dealt with. Immediately: road debris, escaping hazardous material, radioactive waste. Within one to three days: medical waste, animal carcasses, spoiled food. Within a week: friable asbestos, dust from burnt soil, disruption to normal municipal collections.
How many people you need
The staffing ratios are concrete: one full-time case officer per 100 affected landowners or residents, and four to six site assessments per assessor per day.
Twenty-five waste streams, each handled separately
Asbestos, inert construction and demolition waste, mixed waste, metal, hard waste, e-waste and whitegoods, household hazardous waste, vehicles, green waste, soil and sediment, food waste, treated timber posts and ash, unwanted donated goods, agricultural waste, animal carcasses, chemical waste, empty chemical drums, sandbags, and medical and pharmaceutical waste.
When the state steps in
State operational support requires two things at once: the affected community lacks the capacity to cope, and the waste poses high consequences for health, economic assets, the environment or community recovery. One without the other gets advisory support only.
The seven principles behind it
Community resilience, empathy, and support for positive recovery outcomes are three of the seven stated principles. The guidelines treat how people are treated as part of the waste job, not separate from it.
The second principle covers human health, economic assets including agriculture, and the environment.
Sustainable resource management applies, but with a stated limit: where circumstances create unacceptable risk, waste is likely to go to landfill despite the hierarchy. The guidelines say so plainly rather than pretending otherwise.
Practical constraints and community expectations are a principle in their own right, alongside accountability. Emergency processes will not look like business as usual.
Liquid waste, radioactive waste and agricultural waste arising from disease control are outside the scope of this version. The guidelines are meant to be read alongside the State Emergency Management Plan and the Disaster Waste Management Capability Plan.
Related documents
The rest of the South Australian disaster waste framework.
The full guidelines include the decision-making frameworks and the individual guidance sheet for each of the 25 waste streams.
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