High rate of contamination has compromised the quality of Australia’s recyclable material and kerbside collection is crucial to make it easier to recycle the material
Image: KordaMentha takes over recycling activities from SKM in Victoria, Australia. Photo: Courtesy of Ben Kerckx from Pixabay.
The Victorian government in Australia has provided a A$10m (£5.5m) loan to KordaMentha, the receivers and managers of recycling company SKM Group to help clean up SKM sites and resume waste processing.
The government has also started the process to overhaul kerbside recycling.
The loan will be used to help clear waste stockpiles and fund maintenance work so that SKM’s plants can resume waste processing operations from the end of September, while meeting environmental and safety standards.
The Laverton site will be the first to resume work, where stockpile clearing is expected to begin shortly and processing within five weeks.
Other facilities of SKM will begin operations shortly
SKM’s other facilities in Hallam, Geelong and Coolaroo are expected to be back online in due course.
High rate of contamination has compromised the quality of Australia’s recyclable material and kerbside collection is crucial to improving the separation of waste and making it easier to recycle the material.
The state government will work in partnership with local government and industry next month on a major overhaul of kerbside collection, which will seek innovative and cost-effective designs to reduce contamination of waste.
The government expects that the negotiations for new kerbside collection services across councils will send a signal to industry, bring about a change in community behaviour and cut down waste and contamination.
An expression of interest (EOI) is expected to be released after the consultation to design the new kerbside collection service that will begin in 2021.
The latest announcement is in addition to an A$6.6m financial relief package to councils directly affected by the closure of the recycling company last month. The package includes a rebate to cover the cost of the landfill levy so councils are not out of pocket.
The government is also taking several actions such as banning lightweight plastic shopping bags, developing the Circular Economy Policy, assisting councils to improve their recycling contracts as well as banning e-waste from landfill.
The Victoria government has invested over A$141m in the waste and resource recovery industry, including A$37m for the Recycling Industry Strategic Plan.
The funding is used to divert more than 770,000 tonnes of reusable material from landfill every year.