‘Liable persons’ are required to report waste and recycling data annually to the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Department of Water and Environmental Regulation in accordance with approved procedures under Part 3A of the Waste Avoidance and Resource Recovery Regulations 2008 (WARR Regulations).
Key regulations in Part 3A of the WARR Regulations include:
- defining liable persons for the purposes of the WARR Regulations (r.18B)
- requiring liable persons to make and lodge annual returns to the CEO in an approved form (r.18C)
- requiring our department’s CEO to publish a description of the information required to be reported by liable persons and the procedures to be followed by liable persons when making the records and calculating or estimating the information (r.18D)
- requiring liable persons to keep records made for the purposes of the annual return, for at least five years (subregulation 18D(1)(B)(i))
- creating offences (r.18E).
Notification of liability under the WARR Regulations
Regulation 18B(5) of the WARR Regulations requires liable persons to inform the CEO of the Department of Water and Environmental Regulation in the approved form of their liability.
Please register with Waste Data Online using the ‘Notification of Liability’ form to inform the CEO if you or your facility is a liable person.
Liable persons
The following entities are defined as liable persons under r.18B of the WARR Regulations:
- All local governments in Western Australia that provide waste services, including regional councils.
- Recyclers and reprocessing facilities if they:
- treat, process or sort reportable waste at the facility for the purposes of reprocessing, recycling or energy recovery; and
- as a result of that treatment, processing or sorting, at least 1,000 tonnes of reprocessed, recycled or recovered material is produced on-site that is ready for use as a production input or final product; or exported from Western Australia.
- Non-metropolitan landfills that receive more than 20,000 tonnes of waste annually. This does not include waste produced and disposed on-site.
CEO notices and approved procedures
The CEO has gazetted the information required to be reported under r.18D of the WARR Regulations, and the procedures to be followed in reporting that information.
If you are a liable person, you are required to submit an annual return to us in accordance with the relevant ‘CEO notice’.
Liable persons must lodge annual returns on or before 1 October each year containing the information required by these notices for the most recently completed financial year.
You can access the CEO notices for each liable person type at the links below:
- CEO notice for local governments
- CEO notice for liable recyclers
- CEO notice for liable non-metropolitan landfills
Fact sheets
Please see the following fact sheets:
- Waste data reporting – local governments
- Waste data reporting – liable recyclers
- Waste data reporting – liable non-metropolitan landfills
- Waste data reporting – additional guidance for organics recyclers
- Waste data reporting – assessing waste source at the gatehouse
- Waste data reporting – additional guidance for C&D recyclers
To help clarify aspects of the reporting requirements, you can also see our list of frequently asked questions.
Lodging your annual return
Annual returns are due by 1 October of each year. Please use Waste Data Online to lodge your annual return.
Please email any queries to waste.data@dwer.wa.gov.au or phone 08 6364 6954.
Annual waste and recycling in Western Australia report
Data reported under r.18C of the WARR Regulations are collated and incorporated into the annual waste and recycling in Western Australia reports.
