Calls for recycling reforms to cut down on waste

Only a fraction of the recyclables you throw away now are successfully reused and another bin for kerbside collection could be the answer.

Giving households four separate bins for kerbside collection could help turn trash into $324 million worth of treasure.

New modelling from consultancy firm EY reveals that hundreds of millions of dollars is going to waste because recyclable materials are contaminated by being thrown out in the same bin.

The report, to be released today, estimates that only $4.2 million worth of recyclable waste is successfully reused from kerbside bins every year.

It proposes a series of reforms — such as an extra bin or bin dividers to stop recyclable materials from “co-mingling” — which could turn household waste into new products worth $324 million.

Recycling processors have to pay to send contaminated waste to landfill. Picture: Supplied

The state government is currently developing a new waste policy which could include a fourth bin — on top of the existing recycling, waste and garden material bins — as well as targets to reuse recyclable materials.

EY climate change and sustainability partner Terence Jeyaretnam said: “There has to be a fundamental shift in our thinking. We must start realising and treating our waste as a tradeable commodity, like iron ore or gold, rather than just waste.”

The report estimated that the value of the waste in recycling bins was just $2 per tonne, with cross-contamination a problem as well as food residue and people throwing out non-recyclable material.

Recycling processors also have to spend up to $200 per tonne to send contaminated recyclable waste to landfill.

But if that material was properly sorted, the typical kerbside bin could be worth as much as $156 per tonne.

For example, a clean plastic milk bottle is worth $500 per tonne, but only $110 per tonne if thrown out with other waste, and it can cost processors as much as $130 per tonne if it needs to be sent to landfill because it still has a label or a lid on it.

The report called for further education on recycling for households, and incentives for brands to include information about waste disposal on product packaging.

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It said a national container deposit scheme could be part of the solution, along with a tax on “virgin materials” to encourage the use of recycled waste in new products, which could also be spurred by incentives for investment in product development.

“We have this $324 million opportunity sitting in our rubbish bins that can be realised by better methods of sorting, more education about how to recycle and developing new onshore markets for our waste,” Mr Jeyaretnam said.

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