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No time to waste IS THE FED GOVT’S $190M RECYCLING MODERNISATION FUND THE ANSWER TO TRANSFORMING WASTE AND RECYCLING CAPACITY? BRITTANY COLES SPEAKS WITH JOSH WILSON ABOUT THE REFORM NEEDED TO DEAL WITH AUSTRALIA’S WASTE CRISIS.
“L
et’s be clear, recycling and reprocessing infrastructure is only one part of the major reform needed to deal with Australia’s waste crisis,” Shadow Assistant Environment Minister Josh Wilson says. Waste Management Review sat down with Wilson shortly after the Federal Government announced its $190 million Recycling Modernisation Fund (RMF) in early July. According to the Federal Government, the RMF will generate $600 million in recycling investment and drive a billion-dollar transformation of Australia’s waste and recycling capacity. Sussan Ley, Federal Environment Minister, said the investment is part of a national strategy to change the way Australia looks at waste, while growing the economy, protecting the environment and reaching a national resource recovery target of 80 per cent by 2030. “As we cease shipping our waste overseas, the waste and recycling transformation will reshape our domestic waste industry, driving job creation and putting valuable materials back into the economy,” she said. Wilson says Australia needs national leadership through effective policy and matching resources. “You can’t say those things have been delivered in full yet and the waste crisis is well and truly with us,” he says. So far, the Federal Government has commissioned an independent
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analysis that shows Australia may require a 400 per cent increase in recycling infrastructure capacity to cope with additional waste following the export ban. Wilson says Australia has less capacity for plastic reprocessing today than it did in 2005. He adds that there has been an absence of investment at the national level for some time. “The RMF is certainly welcome, but time will tell. The Commonwealth has committed to one third of the funding, so it will require participation from the states and industry,” Wilson notes. The RMF will support innovative
investment in new infrastructure to sort, process and remanufacture materials such as mixed plastic, paper, tyres and glass. “We now have to see the actual proposals of infrastructure projects developed and come forward from this stage,” Wilson says. “The question now is how will that occur from a timing point of view and how quickly will that infrastructure come on stream.” Just over a week after the RMF announcement, Ley announced a partnership between the Australian and ACT Governments to provide
Environment Minister Sussan Ley says the RMF will reshape Australia’s domestic waste industry.
