The Environment Protection Act 2017 and the Environment Protection Regulations 2021 outline how waste needs to be managed in Victoria.
The act is a duties-based framework, with the general environmental duty (GED) at its centre. The GED requires anyone engaging in an activity that may give rise to risks of harm to human health or the environment from pollution or waste to minimise those risks so far as reasonably practicable.
In addition to the GED, waste duties apply to all businesses that generate, transport or receive waste. This means if your business generates, transports or receives industrial waste, you must comply with duties on how you manage the waste and where it goes. This includes digestate.
Digestate is the waste output from anaerobic digestion, an organic recovery process that generates biogas, which is used to create heat and energy.
Digestate can improve plant growth and soil quality, reducing the need for fertilisers. But it can also pose a risk to the environment and human health if the risks are not appropriately managed, such as the presence of contaminants, air emissions and contamination of land. That’s why it’s important to process, transport and use digestate safely.
This guide provides an overview of the requirements that apply to digestate. It is intended to help producers, transporters and receivers of digestate to implement their obligations and to manage the risks of harm to human health and the environment.
It covers:
- producing digestate
- transporting digestate
- applying digestate to land
- receiving digestate for secondary processing
- unpasteurised digestate
- on-site management
- complying with the designation.
This guide does not:
- Provide detailed industry-specific guidance on controlling risks associated with other industrial wastes, such as other agricultural wastes. See the ‘Resources’ section of this guide for references to other useful information.
- Cover other laws that may apply to anaerobic digestion or digestate in Victoria, for example
Reviewed 15 February 2024
