Andrews Government announces $11.3m recycling package

A northern suburbs council has started a petition calling on the State Government to get its act together on recycling, including demands for an independent waste authority and container deposit scheme. It comes after the Environment Minister gave 33 councils affected by the SKM shutdown $6.6 million.

Updated shots of SKM Recycling. picture: Glenn Ferguson

Darebin Council has welcomed short-term funding relief from the State Government, but says there is still a long way to go for the recycling crisis to be solved.

The State Government announced an $11.3 million package to support councils transition to new recycling providers and a recyclables grant program.

Of that, $6.6 million will go to 33 affected councils over the next four months.

The government will also work with councils to overhaul the kerbside collection system to improve the quality of recyclables collected.

State Environment Minister Lily D'Ambrosio announced the plans on August 13.

Environment Minister Lily D’Ambrosio said the financial assistance would help councils meet the real costs of recycling after getting cheaper prices from a failed SKM business model.

“This short-term financial relief supports councils immediately, while all levels of government work together on a longer-term solution that must include an overhaul of kerbside recycling,” she said.

Darebin Mayor Susan Rennie said there were still major capacity issues at recycling facilities and this initiative would not help that problem.

“We see this as a beginning of the journey, and we call for a collaborative inter-government approach towards medium and longer term solutions,” she said.

“These include the establishment of an independent waste authority and the introduction of a container deposit scheme, as well as legislative reform.”

The council has started a change.org petition calling on the State Government to implement a number of these measures, including calls to open additional recycling capacity and mandate the use of recyclable materials.

The petition has more than 1000 signatures.

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The $4.7 million Resource Recovery Infrastructure Fund will support projects to improve the sorting and processing of recycled materials.

On August 13, federal Industry Minister Karen Andrews announced $20 million to help businesses develop technology or products to grow the domestic recycling industry.

@richardapearce