With doubt surrounding the future of recycling, it’s a waste to bury our thoughts on sustainability

DESPITE the revelation that our recyclable waste will no longer be accepted by China, we shouldn’t be deterred in efforts to re-use our valuable resources, writes Matt Johnston.

WHEN I was young, I collected cans. I still remember the stale smell of VB from the tinnies thrown down by Saints fans at the old Moorabbin footy ground, and the feeling of sticky cola oozing from cans at the public pool.

This behaviour wasn’t prompted by environmental awareness — although I’m sure it hammered home the message that recycling is good — or a metal fetish. It was to earn a few bucks to spend on mixed lollies at the milk bar.

COUNCILS SEEK ANSWER AFTER VISY SUSPENDS RECYCLING CONTRACT

THE PITCH: GIVING UNSUSTAINABLE PRODUCTS THE FLICK

VIC AUTHORITIES FACE RECYCLING ‘CRISIS’

For the months I did cash-a-can, I never thought much about what actually happened to those containers once I handed them over. I just assumed someone took care of them, and something was made from them.

Although recycling has changed a fair bit since the 1980s — with more brightly coloured bins clearly defining where you put your milk bottles and tomato tins — the method of re-use or disposal does not seem to have come as far as some would have hoped.

Last month, many of us discovered that a lot of our recycled material is shipped to China. Talk about out of sight, out of mind.

The revelation came because local councils were told by paper giant Visy it could no longer accept their recycling material because they could no longer ship it offshore.

People may become complacent in light of the new revelations.

I can’t seem to find too much detail about what happens to our drink bottles or newspapers in China, a country not renowned for environmental prowess.

Most of the time, I’m an out-of- sight, out-of-mind kind of guy when it comes to rubbish.

There are times when I’m shaken out of complacency, mainly when issues are put in sight.

I was in a Mexican bar recently that was running a “ban the straw” campaign, after a video went viral of a turtle having a plastic straw painfully extracted from its nose.

After I saw the video, I got on board. And seriously, who really needs a straw?

The challenge is to maintain the behaviour.

The fear of many environmental groups is that people will get complacent about recycling if they think their effort to separate their waste is, well, being wasted.

There’s also a fear of a furious response if households are told they will have to pay more for emptying the bins.

What I’ve never understood is why more hasn’t been done to find ways to use old products for other things in Victoria, or Australia.

Research grants are dished out for all manner of things, but why not use more of these to drive cheaper and more efficient ways of recycling?

Or to create new products out of old ones?

With a growing population, this is a growth industry.

The National Waste and Recycling Industry Council told a federal inquiry last year “markets for recycled materials are under threat” and warned of the China issue.

Glass was one example used to highlight market absurdities.

“If we go back 15 years, most glass produced in Australia was recycled and we weren’t getting large imports of glass. Now it’s cheaper to produce a bottle somewhere else, in another country, and bring it in,” chief executive Max Spedding said.

Some policies to incentivise recycling have been introduced across Australia.

NSW is the latest state to introduce a container deposit scheme, where 10c is refunded for cans and bottles.

Max Spedding says it’s cheaper to produce a bottle somewhere else than recycle it.

Victorian parties will be watching with interest.

But this doesn’t solve the issue of what to do with containers once people hand them over.

Today is the day that paper giant Visy finishes accepting recycling bin material from Victorian council collections.

The state government is expected to make an announcement today, with a short-term solution for councils.

But a longer-term vision is also needed. Some hope the state government might promise to spend a bit of money from a sustainability fund that is supposed to be used for these initiatives but which is mainly propping up the Budget at the moment.

Daniel Andrews has rubbished the idea of bringing in a container deposit scheme, but it might be time to start spending some cash it collects from waste on other schemes. But it shouldn’t all be sheeted home to the state.

Hopefully, this jolts households, governments and Oppositions, and councils into considering in more detail what we do with waste and how to clean up our act.

Something should be done soon, because if the bins with the colourful lids don’t get picked up one day, people will start to take much more notice.

And if waste disposal charges start creeping up, the government’s rates cap won’t mean so much. Then the recycling process will no longer be so out of sight, out of mind.

Matt Johnston is state politics editor

[e-mail]

@Media_Matt