C&I   Commercial and industrial waste. Waste that is produced by institutions and businesses, including offices, schools, restaurants, retail and wholesale businesses, and industries such as manufacturing. Also includes waste from primary and secondary production, such as mining and minerals processing.  
C&D Construction and demolition waste. Waste produced by demolition and building activities, including road and rail construction and maintenance, and excavation of land associated with construction activities.  
Department   The Department of Water and Environmental Regulation.  
Disposal  All waste buried in landfill or incinerated without energy capture. This includes waste material used as daily cover at landfills and waste exempt from the waste levy where that waste is used onsite. For the purposes of reporting, this is reported as a wet weight.  
Domestic waste   Waste collected by local governments from households.  
Drop-off services   These are waste collection facilities where residents can bring their waste or recyclables for disposal or recovery. They are often located at a landfill or transfer station.  
Energy recovery  Processes through which wastes are collected, sorted and processed to recover the energy embodied in waste. For the purposes of reporting, this is reported as a wet weight.  
FOGO Food organics and garden organics.  
GO Garden organics.  
Kerbside services   A regular (typically weekly or fortnightly), containerised (for example, wheelie bin) collection service that collects waste from a resident’s kerbside.  
Liable persons  Liable persons are defined under regulation 18B of the WARR Regulations and are required to submit an annual return under regulation 18C of the WARR Regulations.  
Local government  A local government defined under section 1.4 of the Local Government Act 1995. For the purposes of waste reporting, the local government provides waste services and includes regional local governments.  
MSW   Municipal solid waste. Solid waste generated from domestic (residential) premises and local government activities. 
Organic waste   Waste that is derived from biotic processes. Includes food, garden organics, wood and biosolids. Typically excludes paper and cardboard, textiles, rubber, leather and nappies, but may include them under some circumstances.  
Peel region   The Peel region is the area defined by the Peel Region Scheme (May 2013). It encompasses the City of Mandurah and the shires of Murray and Waroona.  
Perth metropolitan region The Perth region, or Perth metropolitan region, is the area defined by the Metropolitan Region Scheme (June 2014).  
Recycling 

When solid wastes are collected, sorted, processed (including through composting), and converted into a final product or into raw materials to be used in the production of new products.  

 For data reporting purposes, recycling:  

  • excludes materials in stockpiles of unprocessed waste materials  
  • includes all materials processed for recycling, whether they are quickly sold or used, or stockpiled for later sale or use 
  • excludes waste recovered as energy 
  • excludes residuals that are sent to landfill or otherwise disposed of. 
Recycling rate  Percentage of total waste generated that is recycled. 
Reportable waste Waste that is considered solid matter under regulation 18A of the WARR Regulations.  
Reprocessing  Secondary processing of waste (generally size reduction) to make raw materials to be used in the production of new products or direct use.  
Recovery  The process of extracting materials or energy from a waste stream through reprocessing, recycling or recovering energy from waste. For the purposes of reporting, this is reported as a wet weight.  
Recovery rate  Percentage of total waste generated that is recovered. 
Scrap   A generic term for unprocessed recyclable waste materials.  
Stockpiled   Waste or waste products temporarily stored for future sale, resource recovery or disposal.  
Vergeside service  Bulk waste services that are infrequent (typically every 4–6 months or on demand), where material is collected from residential vergesides. Can be non-containerised or via a skip bin provided by the local government.  
WA   Western Australia.  
WARR Regulations   Waste Avoidance and Resource Recovery Regulations 2008.  
Waste generated/ generation   The sum of waste recovered plus waste disposed.  
Waste strategy   Waste Avoidance and Resource Recovery Strategy 2030.  

< PREVIOUS: Methodology  |   NEXT: References >

Created Date:
Thu 26 June 2025

Last Edit Date:
Thu 26 June 2025