Local residents are being urged to keep material out of landfill by not contaminating their recycling bins despite China’s ban on taking some of Australia’s recycling waste.
Sustainability Victoria board members were in the Latrobe Valley on Wednesday meeting with local councils, community groups and schools as part of a tour of the regions.
Chief executive Stan Krpan said that is was essential that people didn’t mix their kerbside waste bins as local councils and the state government worked to find domestic markets for the resource.
This comes as China has stopped taking Australia’s recycling material which has been contaminated with other non-recyclables such as plastic bags.
Mr Krpan said he was aware of local interest from businesses to find alternatives for the resource which has dropped in value since China’s ban.
“The alternative is to develop a circular economy to keep resources in in Victoria and find alternative products and materials locally,” Mr Krpan said.
“Although we are aware about China, we are continuing recycling efforts and finding other local and international markets.
“Some of the stockpiles are moving already and some Victorian companies are investing in new infrastructure for processing.”
Mr Krpan said that one of the worst offences was people putting bottles and cans into plastic bags, and dropping them in recycling bins which then gets rejected down the line and ends up in landfill.
“At this stage, none of the recycling waste in the Latrobe Valley has gone to landfill, but sometimes contaminated recycling does go into landfill,” he said.
Gippsland Waste and Resources Recovery Group executive officer Matthew Peake said Latrobe had managed to keep 70 per cent of its waste out of landfill but urged residents to do their part.
“We need it as clean as possible, and once we clean it up, it will have market value overseas and it will have an opportunity here for a local market,” Mr Peake said.
“We need to educate the community about the intrinsic value of this product and present it in a way the market can receive it.”
The state government has set aside $15 million to fund businesses creating new recycling infrastructure.
Mr Peake said there were already local success stories with companies making fertiliser from municipal organic waste and several other Latrobe Valley businesses taking in clean cardboard for recycling.
