Counting (green) jobs in Queensland’s waste and recycling sector

Abstract

The waste and recycling sector has been identified as a green industry and, as such, jobs within this sector may be classed as ‘green jobs’. Many governments have seen green jobs as a way of increasing employment, particularly during the global financial crisis. However, the methods used to define and quantify green jobs directly affect the quantification of these green jobs. In December 2010, Queensland introduced a waste strategy that stated intent to increase green jobs within the waste sector. This article discusses the milieu and existing issues associated with quantifying green jobs within Queensland’s waste and recycling sector, and provides a review of the survey that has sought to quantify the true size of the Queensland industry sector. This research has identified nearly 5500 jobs in Queensland’s private waste management and recycling sector, which indicates that official data do not accurately reflect the true size of the sector.

Keywords

Queensland green jobs waste recycling multipliers

Background

Europe’s current policy and strategy for supporting ‘green jobs’ dates back to 1997, and has become one of the principal justifications for the USA’s ‘green jobs’ proposals (Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, 2009, p. 7). However, in other countries, including Australia, the emergence of the drive to create ‘green jobs’ coincided with the global financial crisis (GFC). The GFC has added pressure on governments worldwide to devise policies that stimulate high levels of sustainable job creation, and on private industry to preserve existing workforces and, as such, ‘green jobs’ are seen as an important mechanism for stimulating economic growth and ensuring a low-carbon transition (Energy Skills Queensland, 2011a; Friends of the Earth, 2010)

Recognising the importance of green jobs, both the Australian Federal and State governments have already provided funding for training programmes that offer green skills (Green Skills Agreements), particularly to individuals new to the workplace or those experiencing barriers to employment. In July 2009, the Australian government launched the Clean Sustainable Skills Package, which is investing in 50,000 green jobs and associated training packages for younger and disadvantaged Australians so that they will be work-ready for the growing green sector as it expands. In December 2009, the Council of Australian Governments endorsed a new Green Skills Agreement, which sought to build ‘green’ capacity within the vocational education and training sector through the incorporation of sustainability skills into all of the National Training Packages and the development of standards for such skills.

During the financial year 2010/11, the Australian waste management industry revenue was approximately AU$10.19 billion, an increase of more than 10% from the previous financial year as a result of adverse weather events in Eastern Australia (IBISWorld, 2011). The waste management sector in Australia is undergoing significant structural changes. As of June 2004, there were 1759 organisations in the waste management sector, of which four organisations accounted for around 54% of the total industry revenue, and the level of industry concentration is continually increasing through consolidation (IBISWorld, 2007). Waste collection and transport in Australia accounts for approximately 52% of the total industry income, of which 31% is from the collection and transportation of solid wastes from commercial, industrial, construction and demolition clients (IBISWorld, 2011). Given the internationalisation of the Australian waste management and recycling sector, with many of the companies already positioned in global markets, Australia is in a position to expand the scope and size of the current sector, subject to the right economic signals and regulatory support. The rising cost of virgin materials and increasing technological advancements are creating strong markets for secondary materials, particularly in Australia’s main trading partner, China.

The Chifley Research Centre (2001) identified that the emerging Australian environmental industry is a key knowledge-based economic contributor. The waste and recycling sector has been identified as a green industry along with renewable energy, energy efficiency, sustainable water systems, biomaterials and green buildings, which have the capacity to generate up to another 500,000 jobs in Australia by 2030 subject to strong government policy and strong markets (Australian Council of Trade Unions, 2008). This article discusses the opportunity for green jobs within the waste and recycling industry, and provides an overview of existing studies, including an annual industry survey, which have quantified Queensland’s waste management and recycling workforce.

The state of Queensland

The state of Queensland is located on the north-eastern corner of Australia, covering an area of 1,734,157 km² (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2006a) and with a population of more than four million (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2006b). The majority of Queensland’s population is located in the south-east of the state around the capital city of Brisbane and the Gold Coast region, with further population densities along the coast. The highly localised population concentration in south-east Queensland corresponds with the significant proportion of municipal solid waste generation, and the highest proportion and diversity of waste reuse and recycling facilities (Davis and Read, 2012).

Opportunities for job creation

According to officially sourced government data, during 2009–10, 32,737 people were employed in the Australian waste management industry, of which 5114 were in Queensland (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2011). Of these, general government sector organisations in Queensland employed 1036 people in activities relating to waste management, with the sector contributing to 17.5% of total general government sector employment (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2011). However, it is acknowledged that this number is likely to be an underestimation owing to limited Australian and New Zealand Standard Classification of Occupations (ANZSCO)—a classification system that provides for the standardised collection, analysis and dissemination of occupation data—and Australian and New Zealand Standard Industry Codes (ANZSIC) classifications, and no designated industry skills bodies to represent the industry (Davis 2008, 2011; Davis and Read, 2012). There have been surveys undertaken to identify certain workforces within Queensland’s waste and recycling industry. For example, during December 2011 and January 2012, the Waste Contractors and Recycling Association of Queensland (WCRAQ) undertook their first annual workforce survey and other limited studies (Energy Skills Queensland, 2011a). Results from this literature indicate that the sector is already employing more than 5500 individuals within the private sector alone (Davis, 2012a; Energy Skills Queensland, 2011a) and therefore official data significantly underestimate the true size of the industry’s workforce.

In 2010, the Queensland Government released its waste strategy in which it stated that “Victoria has around 13,000 green jobs associated with waste, Queensland only has 5,000”, with the accompanying Ministerial Statement at the front stating that a critical aim of the strategy was to increase this figure to be comparable with Victoria (Department of Environment and Resource Management, 2010, pi). However, the strategy does not state its definition of a ‘green job’ nor the scope or sources of the stated figures. The strategy failed to note that Victoria has Australia’s second largest workforce, employing more than 2.7 million people (Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations, 2010). Hence, a direct comparison between the two states (Queensland and Victoria) is senseless.

The definition of a ‘green job’ will influence the number of these 5114 workers currently employed in green roles, as well as the future projections of green jobs within Queensland’s waste and recycling sector. The Victorian recycling industry employs more than 6500 people (1850 in transportation; 2060 in sorting; 2620 in reprocessing of materials) (Environment Victoria, 2009). Remarkably, 90% of materials recovered in Victoria are processed within the State (Environment Victoria, 2009). This is not the case in Queensland, with a significant proportion of materials being exported to Asia for processing and remanufacture.

In December 2011, the Queensland Government made further commitment to the creation of green jobs in the business plan, which supports their strategy (Department of Environmental and Resource Management, 2011). The business plan outlines a 4-year program covering five thematic areas (waste infrastructure and market development, research and development, capacity building, enhanced regulation and compliance, and strategic and national initiatives; see Figure 1) and funding of AU$159 million to assist Queensland in meeting the strategy targets.

All of the five thematic areas are linked to the ‘development of sustainable waste industries and jobs’, which is one of the broad goals of the waste strategy (Figure 1). New jobs will be created in the manufacture, installation and ongoing maintenance/calibration of new waste management infrastructure, such as weighbridges. Accompanying new legislation also mandated various activities, which may additionally stimulate specialist employment, such as the requirement for a registered and qualified surveyors to undertake annual volumetric surveys of landfills, and appropriately qualified personnel to undertake waste audits.

With regard to research and development activities, the current numbers of ‘waste/resource’ projects in Queensland, and, correspondingly, the number of academic personnel, are low. This sector is underdeveloped, which, in turn, has led to a very limited number of waste management modules and qualifications at a tertiary level (Davis, 2008). It is widely accepted that within tertiary education a new curriculum takes a significant amount of time to develop (Desha and Hargroves, 2010), and taught material closely reflects the knowledge and research interests of the lecturers (Davis, 2008; Ruzinsky et al., 1996), possibly creating a restraining or obstructive effect.

The business plan states an intent and budget (AU$2.56 million) to utilise consultancies to fill knowledge gaps and assess industry needs (Department of Environment and Resource Management, 2011). This will stimulate employment within consultancies. However, a significant proportion of this employment is likely to be external to Queensland with many national and international consultancies pooling workforces between different offices to tender and complete for specific jobs as they arise. Overall, there is a small number of specialist consultants working in waste and recycling located within Queensland.

With regard to capacity building, employment in the sector may be increased if training capacity for the sector can be boosted, although there is little within the business plan, or, indeed, strategy, which requires a higher level of staff training. Rather, the implication is that new investment will see the installation of new technologies and business processes, which will drive the demand for waste management training. Historically, in Queensland, the demand for vocational education and training within the current waste vocational management qualification is poor (Davis, 2012b) and the current training capacity is low. As such, the number of appropriately qualified trainers for this sector is correspondingly low, and there will be a lag time to both train and recruit suitable staff. In addition, tertiary education opportunities (qualifications and research) are limited in Queensland compared with other states and countries.

For increased regulation and compliance, a significant budget allocation of AU$25.03 million has been allocated for 4 years for the appointment of compliance officers and AU$4.42 million for a designated illegal dumping task force (Department of Environment and Resource Management, 2011). Additionally, further government employees have been recruited through the ‘Waste Busters for Business’ programme and potentially through the employment of market industry development officers (Department of Environment and Resource Management, 2011). It is noted that these budget allocations are only allocated for a 4-year period, which means many of the Department of Environment and Resource Management staff recruited to these positions are on temporary contracts and have been seconded from other operational areas within Department of Environment and Resource Management. Under these circumstances, these jobs may not be classed as ‘sustainable’, as they are not permanent positions and ongoing employment cannot be guaranteed.

With regard to sustainable job creation for Theme 5—strategic and national initiatives—the business plan infers employment creation through the ongoing evaluation, review and update of internal strategy documents and targets, and against the National Waste Policy Implementation Plan, in addition to product stewardship activities (Department of Environment and Resource Management, 2011). These jobs are likely to be at state government level and potentially at ‘maintenance levels’ only.

Defining green jobs

Definitions of ‘green jobs’ vary significantly between organisations and countries, and there is no universally accepted definition—some definitions characterise green jobs as only applying to the vocational and trade professions (Thomas et al., 2010). Further studies question the ethics of some potential ‘green jobs’. For example, Annandale et al. (2004, as cited by Thomas et al., 2010) question if a recycling plant that emits air pollution can be considered as a producer of green jobs.

Definitions of green jobs are generally devised to suit a particular study or support a particular outcome, ranging from ‘everyone has a green collar job’ and ‘anyone who has the word environment, sustainable, green or something similar in their title on their business card is a green collar worker’ (Viridus, as cited in EIANZ & DECC, 2009). It can be argued that a green job must go further than simply a job title and must contribute significantly to preserving or enhancing environmental quality. The number of green jobs in Australia varies between 50,000 to more than 300,000 depending on the definition used and data source, including the level of extrapolation or the use of multipliers (EIANZ & DECC, 2009). Many of the studies on green jobs creation and mapping future green job growth are not clear about their scope, units or timeframes associated with their results, making it difficult to compare studies or clarify assumptions (Energy Skills Queensland, 2011; Energy Skills Queensland, 2011b).

Additionally, there is a current lack of understanding of what constitutes waste management work and omissions to the employment statistics for this sector make it difficult to accurately identify the current number of jobs or range of occupations within this sector from ‘officially sourced’ data. To further categorise jobs in this sector into green jobs, and presumably ‘non-green jobs’, may only confuse quantification of jobs and recognition of the sector as a whole.

While it could be assumed that any individual employed within an organisation undertaking waste and/or recycling activities may be counted as a ‘job’ in the sector, there is a range of considerations on how ‘sustainable’ these jobs are and how these jobs are classified within the sector. For example:

by organisation, that is all employees working within a waste/recycling organisation are waste/recycling employees regardless of job function or training;

by job function/work, so only those undertaking work tasks directly related to the operations associated with waste management and/or recycling are counted and support roles, such as administration and human resources, are excluded;

by profession, including educational and training achievements;

a ‘hybrid’ of these factors.

Further classification into green and ‘non-green’ occupations/roles would be onerous with additional complexity when quantifying the number of jobs within an organisation or state (Figure 2).

Is it a new role, or an existing role that has required some upskilling, or simply a current job function which has required no changes to function or skilling?

Is the job in-house (to the waste/recycling organisation) or contracted, e.g. construction personnel and consultants?

Is the job sustainable—essentially is the position temporary or permanent (e.g. construction works and consultancy services tend to be only temporary)?

What proportion of an employee’s daily activity is assigned to undertaking a waste/recycling role? This may not be clearly quantifiable if an organisation operates other services or provides other goods outside the sector.

As technologies, skills and competencies improve, fewer workers may be required over time.

The relationship between a ‘job’ and a full-time equivalent (FTE). The definition of FTE in terms of hours per week to holiday allocations, both of which vary across organisations and from private to public sectors. Additionally, where job-share and part-time working opportunities exist, the number of jobs or employees is likely to be higher than the number of FTEs.

Issues of employers reclassifying their core business or jobs where a facility undertakes several activities.

While some of these factors may be easily addressed depending on how the waste job has been identified (i.e. by sector, job function or profession), many will have a level of complexity where contractual agreements, work allocation and increasing technological developments make simple quantification of industry jobs complex and further classification (green/non-green) excessive.

Multipliers to determine green job creation

According to Miller (n.d.), an employment multiplier measures the total change in employment resulting from an initial change in employment with the additional employment in the new activity multiplied by the employment multiplier for the industry, which provides an estimate of the total new jobs created within an industry.

There is considerable uncertainty in many reports around the assessment of job creation within the waste and recycling industry. Nor is it clear the effect of the direct employment on the secondary service sector, such as the legal and financial services. Job creation opportunities for the waste and recycling sector will vary for every stage of the supply chain, and will be unique to each technology and organisation.

Queensland’s Waste Reduction and Recycling Business Plan (Department of Environment and Resource Management, 2011, p. 7) stated ‘a recent survey commissioned by the Australian Government identified that for every 10,000 tonnes of waste recycled 9.2 jobs are created. Only 2.8 jobs are created if the same 10,000 tonnes are sent to landfill’. Although this statement was not referenced within the plan, this figure was determined in a study that identified multipliers to determine employment in the waste management and recycling sector (Access Economics, 2009). This report noted the limitations in available data, including the ‘incomplete and largely dated data sources currently available’ (Access Economics, 2009, p. 2). As a result, the multipliers were determined from very limited available data/literature and a company survey, which was only sent to 344 industry participants within Australia and which received an 18% response rate.

Other studies have reported multipliers for the industry, ranging from:

incinerating 10,000 tons (1 ton is equivalent to 1.016 tonnes) of waste creates one job; landfilling 10,000 tons of waste creates six jobs; recycling 10,000 tons of waste creates 36 jobs (United States Environmental Protection Agency, 2002);

an average of about eight staff per organisation providing 6.6 FTE jobs multipliers for indirect, induced and displaced jobs from elsewhere (CASCADIA Consulting Group, 2009; Gray et al., 2002);

recycling results in up to 36 times more jobs than landfilling (California Government, n.d.);

product re-use create 470 jobs per 10,000 tonnes processed per annum; recycling-based manufacturers create 162 jobs per 10,000 tonnes processed per annum; and conventional recycling facilities create 15 jobs per 10,000 tonnes processed per annum (SITA UK, 2012);

additionally, it found that for every job created in the recycling industry another 1.4 jobs are created through associated economic activity (Thomas, 2011).

Previous studies have determined that job multipliers tend to be poorly understood and administered, resulting in a wide degree of error, which negates any useful application (Energy Skills Queensland, 2011b). This is certainly true where baseline employment data is unknown and, as such, the true size and scope of the industry is largely undocumented so workforce trends based on technology and service delivery are unidentified, such as in the case of Queensland. While some countries (such as the UK) have sound data in which to base multiplier effects, their technology and legislative measures are unique, so that direct comparison and application to Queensland is inappropriate (Davis and Read, 2012).

A significant limitation with using multipliers is that many fail to address infrastructure effects, or differentiate between local and regional employment effects. Rural employment effects will depend on an area’s population, and its ability to attract investment in support industries and manufacturing. In many cases, the development may not be able to attract local manufacturing to rural areas as the project will only provide limited, if not one-off, opportunities and longer term factors, such as access to infrastructure, a wider employment pool and favourable geographical location will be considered. For this reason, indirect and induced job multipliers are unlikely to be consistent between remote, rural and urban areas.

The next section reviews a number of existing studies which have quantified employment within Queensland’s waste and recycling sector.

Quantifying waste and recycling jobs in Queensland

Table 1 shows the direct employment within Queensland’s waste and recycling sector. The studies shown in Table 1 are taken from actual survey data of industry organisations. Additionally, a telephone survey of WCRAQ members who did not respond to the WCRAQ Annual Workforce Survey was undertaken. To ensure participant burden of the WCRAQ members was not a factor, these companies were only contacted once to solicit the information. The indirect and induced job potential associated with the Queensland sector has not been counted owing to concerns regarding the accuracy of multipliers, and also the limitations associated with the direct employment data and the fact that Table 1 represents a narrowly defined and, therefore, conservative estimate.

Table 1.

Direct employment in Queensland’s waste and recycling sector.

Sector	Queensland workforce data	Ref.
Landfill gas power sector	Overall, the Queensland landfill gas power sector is estimated to directly employ approximately 10–20 technical-based FTEs in the daily operation and maintenance of the power facilities and in the construction of new landfill gas capture infrastructure. This figure does not include personnel employed to install landfill gas capture infrastructure, as these teams are currently based outside Queensland. Figures also do not include landfill gas infrastructure where the gas is simply flared and not used for energy generation.	Energy Skills Queensland (2011c)
Power generation of biogas from waste water treatment facilities	The power generation of biogas from wastewater treatment facilities employs approximately 50 FTEs. This figure does not include staff employed in general operations or maintenance of the facilities.	Energy Skills Queensland (2011c)
Co-generation facilities—sugar and other agricultural facilities	Energy recovery from various waste streams, including sugar mills and other cogeneration facilities (including a single black liquor boiler), it is estimated that approximately 350 FTEs are directly employed in co-generation facilities within Queensland.	Energy Skills Queensland (2011c)
WCRAQ Annual Workforce Survey 2010–2011	Sixty-four WCRAQ members were surveyed as having current, active workforces in Queensland. Of the 29 companies who responded (45% response rate), they employed 4516 Queenslanders. It is noted that some of the large organisations did not respond.	Davis (2012a)
Telephone survey of Queensland waste and recycling companies beyond other data sources	Reported Queensland employment from six waste and recycling companies. Four hundred and twenty-eight employees were employed across the six companies.	Company names withheld owing to limited sample size.
Total Queensland workforce	5364

WCRAQ: Waste Contractors and Recycling Association of Queensland.

These workforce figures represent the private sector only, specifically the mainstream service and maintenance workers, and do not include specialist sectors or any construction workforce figures associated with the building of waste and recycling infrastructure (with the exception of landfill gas infrastructure). Additionally, product providers, consultancies, research and training personnel, and government personnel (state and local) are not included. Thus, the above figure represents a conservative estimate of employment within Queensland’s waste and recycling sector.

Despite the above figure being conservative, it is still larger than the official data, which determined that during 2009–10, 4078 people were employed in Queensland’s private waste sector [5114 were in Queensland waste services industry of which 1036 people were employed in government organisations in activities relating to waste management (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2011)]. The survey data clearly indicate that the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ (ABS) approximation of the size of the sector, with regard to employment, is an underestimation. However, the author notes that the ABS data are, potentially, 2 years older than the data/studies presented in Table 1. However, the actual job figures indicate that not all people working in the sector are being correctly assigned, perhaps as a result of the limited ANZSCO and ANZSIC codes, which represent the sector and its occupations (Davis 2011, 2012c). It is imperative that this is corrected so that other industry metrics, such as workplace health and safety data, can be correctly assigned and contextualised.

Conclusions

Figure 3 outlines the key organisations involved in the waste and recycling sector, and those essential to ensure the sector’s development and success. In order for the sector to be successful clear policy and strategy from government is required, including adequate support mechanisms, such as access to capital and a skilled workforce.

The diversity of these stakeholders and their objectives mean that consistent mapping and classification across the sector is often deficient. Coupled with the lack of a clear definition of a ‘green job’ simply adds to the issues associated with quantification. Furthermore, the definition and quantification of ‘waste management and recycling jobs’ are difficult. For example, under current government-established occupational classifications, a proportion of recycling workers (such as those employed in metal recovery), are assigned to the manufacturing sector. Therefore, the current capabilities and mechanisms used to accurately estimate the number of jobs in the waste management and recycling industries are absent, let alone providing clear guidance for further identification of those roles which also represent ‘green jobs’. Until these issues are resolved, the design or application of job multipliers is unfeasible, particularly where existing multipliers have been determined on waste and recycling sectors at different stages of development and operating within dissimilar legislative environments to Queensland.

This research has identified that the current levels of employment within Queensland’s waste management and recycling sector are significantly higher than official estimates from the ABS. This situation has arisen owing to the limited official industry and occupational reporting codes associated with the sector. In the first instance, the sector requires full and proper reporting so that the size and scope of the sector can be accurately determined. Further workforce estimations can then be made based on sound baseline data and taking into account potential future industry growth and development, which itself will be heavily influenced by government policies (at both state and federal levels) and market signals (such as mandatory recycling obligations and levies).

This review identified nearly 5500 workers in Queensland’s waste and recycling sector (private sector only), but it is essential that the Queensland Government and relevant Federal Government bodies address the factors which leave this sector underestimated and poorly defined. This will enable accurate workforce planning to determine occupational supply against demand, as well as permitting identification of skills gaps where appropriate workforce development strategies, such as training and other forms of capacity building, to be implemented.

Further planned job creation needed for this sector to meet the job prediction stated in the Queensland’s Waste Strategy will require significant planning and infrastructure development, both to ensure that facilities are built and to ensure the workforce and their skills are developed to meet the timescales of the industry development. It is therefore necessary to predict which sub-sectors and technologies will dominate future waste/recycling decisions, their skills requirements, and how quickly relevant jobs will be needed so that education and training infrastructure can be implemented to meet those needs. Care should be taken to ensure that these jobs go beyond part-time and temporary positions, which have a limited lifetime, and rather ensure that the investments build sustained employment opportunities within the waste/recycling sector.

Footnotes

Acknowledgements

I wish to extend my thanks to the Waste, Recycling Industry Association (Queensland) who recognise the importance of being able to accurately quantify the true size of Queensland’s waste management and recycling industries, and so provided access to their members for survey purposes.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Funding

This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

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