Under the Environment Protection Act 1993 (SA), 'waste' is a purposive and relative concept: material that is waste from the perspective of one party may cease to be waste when it passes to another who uses it as an input or product. The use of waste fill to construct an engineered cap constitutes 'recycling' within the meaning of s 6(6) of the Wingfield Waste Depot Closure Act 1999 (SA), and recycling does not require any degree of processing of the waste material. Where a licence contains a primary obligation (condition 6) and an alternative compliance mechanism (condition 8), the primary obligation continues to govern unless and until the alternative is approved by the regulator; mere expression of an intention to pursue the alternative does not abrogate the primary obligation.
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