Kingston Council decides not to speak on recycling at Carrum Sustainable Festival after China’s waste import ban

Just days before the Carrum Sustainable Festival Kingston Council told organisers it couldn’t take part because of ongoing concerns about the future of recycling in Victoria following China’s ban on waste imports.

Kingston City Council recycling said uncertainty about the future of recycling was behind its decision to pull out of a sustainability event.

JUST weeks after telling ratepayers it was business as usual for recycling in Kingston, the council abandoned plans to speak at a sustainability event explaining how it recycled.

Just days before the Carrum Sustainable Festival the council told organisers it couldn’t take part because of ongoing concerns about the future of recycling in Victoria following China’s ban on waste imports.

Kingston’s environment general manager Daniel Freer told the Leader Kingston advised festival organisers that “the current uncertainty over the future of recycling in Victoria” meant that it would be difficult to provide the community with accurate information.

“It put us in a spin, but on some level I can understand why they pulled out,” organiser Jess Scarlett said.

“On one level I was really disappointed but on another level I respected why that they didn’t want to go in there. ”

Recycling giant Visy announced recently that it would stop accepting waste from 22 regional councils following China’s decision to stop accepting 24 categories of solid waste, disrupting the export of more than 600,000 tonnes of material out of Australia each year.

Kingston Council doesn’t use Visy. It has a contract with CleanAway which uses recycling firm Polytrade and a few weeks ago Mr Freer said recyclable materials were still being collected and “residents are encouraged to continue using their yellow bins as normal.”

Those Victorian councils affected by China’s ban have been given a short-term reprieve, with the State Government giving $13 million to help them manage their rubbish.

It has also announced a taskforce would be established to help the industry adapt to the new circumstances.

However, Rob Spence, the CEO of the Municipal Association of Victoria, has said a long-term fix to the problem was not in sight.

“We’re still miles away from the final solution on this, so this is a massive effort to get this sorted out,” he said.

He warned ratepayers could end up paying for the increased cost of dealing with the waste.

About 500 people attended the sustainability festival at Carrum Surf Lifesaving Club and Beach Lane cafe on February 25 and Mr Freer said council supported the event with a $10,000 community grant.