SA recycling crisis: Waste industry seeks bailout and Adelaide councils warn of rate rises over ‘China Sword’ policy

A CHINESE ban on imported paper and plastic is becoming a big headache for SA households. Councils are warning of steep rate rises, there are calls for a $7m bailout — and one major interstate council has started dumping recyclables left in yellow-top bins into landfill.

• Councils brace for backlash over China Sword crisis
• Local plastics recycling firm to shut over soaring power bills

A RESCUE package of more than $7 million is urgently needed to help councils grappling with the consequences of a Chinese Government ban on imported paper and plastic, a national waste body says.

The Waste Management Association of Australia has called for the State Government to intervene as it warned “all South Australians are going to be directly affected” by the “rapid and excessive nature” of the so-called China Sword.

Councils are set for extra rate rises this year as a result of a sharp increases in collection costs for recycled waste.

Treasurer Rob Lucas said the government had established a working group to investigate the impacts of the China ban before making any decision on a relief package for councils.

And today one of Queensland’s biggest councils — Ipswich City Council in the state’s southeast — has announced it will start dumping all recyclable materials left in household yellow-top bins into landfill.

A file photo of the Wingfield rubbish dump.

In a letter to SA Environment Minister David Spiers, Waste Management Association chief executive Gayle Sloan and SA president Mark Rawson said the government needed to provide about $7.2 million to help councils “address cost impacts” of the ban.

The NSW Government has already committed $47 million to help its councils deal with the China Sword, while a $13 million relief package has been provided to Victorian councils.

“There has not been an issue as big or as critical as the China Sword impacting on the South Australian waste and resource recovery industry … in three decades,” the letter stated.

“As the impact directly links back to household kerbside recycling, all South Australians are going to be directly affected through potential increases in household rates.”

The association’s letter stated the China ban threatened the “financial viability of SA’s recycling activities”, while also raising concern about the prospect of more recyclables being sent to landfill.

The Local Government Association has been calling on the State Government to dip in to its Green Industry Fund — which has swelled to more than $100 million — to “shield ratepayers from increased collection costs”.

LGA public affairs executive director Lisa Teburea today also urged the government to freeze scheduled increases in its solid waste levy.

Ms Tebura said the China ban was an example of “an external pressure on council budgets that is outside their control”, highlighting why they should not be subjected to the Liberals’ proposed rate capping policy.

The Chinese Government’s decision to effectively ban the importation of all paper and plastics has resulted in commodity prices dropping by as much as 90 per cent, forcing recycling firms to charge councils a fee to process their recycled waste, rather than pay them to accept it.

Walkerville Council was this week informed that the China ban would cost it about $22,000 in 2018/19, an amount it could not “absorb” and would therefore pass on to ratepayers.

Prospect Council has already predicted an extra rate rise to offset a $150,000-$200,000 hit from the recycling ban.

Packaging made from recycled paper coffee cups at England’s James Cropper recycling plant. Picture: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

Victorian company SKM Recycling previously provided Walkerville an average monthly rebate of $1460 but will now charge “gate fees” as high as almost $3000 a month, according to figures provided by rubbish collection agency East Waste.

Walkerville councillors voted to write to Mr Spiers calling for a relief package to deal with the “collapse” of its recycling program.

Elected members also flirted with the idea of not paying the State Goverment’s solid waste levy unless it delivered the relief package — before senior staff warned that move was most likely illegal.

“The state (government) needs to start doing something because we are going to need some assistance to get us through the next six months,” councillor and East Waste board member Gianni Busato told the meeting.

“We are in trouble.”