Official Publication of the
ISSUE 84 | JUNE/JULY 2018
www.insidewaste.com.au Have you met Daisy? Daisy is Apple’s latest innovation in material recovery and can disable iPhones to recover materials traditional recyclers cannot. In this issue, we look at the value of robots in industrialising recycling processes.
INSIDE 18 Getting to the root of the issue 26 Honouring the changemakers 30 Industrialising processes
Lacking details
Councils expect to take million-dollar hit
PP: 255003/07055
ISSN 1837-5618
CHINA’S decision to restrict the imports of 24 categories of waste has caused commodity prices to plunge, leaving some private operators having to pay for recyclables to be collected. Many have been in discussions with local governments around contracts, solutions, and price increases and more information has emerged on just how much these increases will be. In South Australia, a Local Government Association of SAcommissioned report has unveiled that the impact of China’s National Sword policy on the state’s recycling sector could be as high as $8.8 million, a figure based on a $63 per tonne increase in the cost of processing recycled materials.
LGA SA, along with state industry groups, is calling on the government to release some of the funds sitting in the Green Industry Fund to manage increased costs. But as a start, the association wants the government to freeze further landfill levy increases. Over in Queensland, Local Government Association of Queensland told a Senate inquiry into Australia’s waste and recycling industry that at least 10 councils are bracing themselves for a $7 million hit in 2018-19 and fear that kerbside services are under duress. However, LGAQ told the inquiry that the true cost may in fact be higher as contractors could impose higher charges whilst materials are rejected due to high contamination levels,
pointing to regional councils as the ones that will struggle the most. Like its counterpart in SA, the association is calling on the state government to roll out an emergency assistance package. Turning to WA, where Cleanaway has been vocal about local governments needing to agree to higher fees or risk sending recyclables to landfill, the state government has set up a waste taskforce which will provide advice directly to the Minister for Environment. However, no assistance package has been announced... yet. To date, only Victoria and NSW have offered multimillion-dollar rescue packages though these states are now facing questions and challenges of their own with these initiatives.
THE country’s state and federal Environment Ministers met in April to discuss ways to sustainably manage recycled waste following the roll-out of China’s National Sword Policy on January 1. Despite the gravity of the situation, the Ministers’ statement following the meeting was rather lacking, with few details around next steps. While it should be acknowledged that for the first time, the waste and resource recovery sector is on the minds and in the agendas of our Environment Ministers, and the collaboration and cohesiveness seen in this instance has never happened before, there was an opportunity to do so much more than make motherhood statements such as “Ministers agreed to increase our recycling capacity” and “Ministers agreed to encourage waste reduction strategies through greater consumer awareness, education, and with industry leadership.” Funding or plans to drive these commitments were not even discussed. On a positive note, the Ministers agreed to update the 2009 Waste Strategy by the end of the year and this strategy will include circular economy principles. Waste to energy was also on the table, with Ministers agreeing to explore advanced waste to energy and waste to biofuels projects as part of a broader suite of industry growth initiatives. The Ministers have endorsed a target of 100% of Australian packaging being recyclable, compostable or reusable by 2025 or earlier, and they have tasked APCO with delivering that target.