Twenty-year recycling plan set to slash our waste

A new $1 billion plan to fix the state’s recycling woes would overhaul current processes and include the rollout of multiple bins to households — including a statewide green-waste program to lower greenhouse gases and reduce waste.

Victoria could save up to 90 per cent of waste under a new $1 billion plan to fix the state’s recycling woes.

Infrastructure Victoria on Thursday released a report advising the government on strategies to overhaul current schemes by 2039.

Under the proposed reforms recycling would be streamlined and processed separately, before being injected back into the community in areas such as farming and ­infrastructure.

Multiple bins would be rolled out to city and country households — including a statewide green-waste program to lower greenhouse gases and reduce waste.

The overhaul could create 5000 jobs, especially in regional areas where most new or repurposed processing plants are proposed.

Project director Elissa McNamara said the proposed reforms were an important step in the right direction.

“Victorians are really ready for this change,” she said.

“Having the right bins really makes it easy to put the right material in the right bin, which means those materials when they get collected can be recycled and be reused.”

The advice, which calls for funding from both government and private sectors, ­includes new recycling schemes for paper, cardboard, glass, organics, tyres and electronic waste.

Under the proposed reforms recycling would be streamlined and processed separately, before being injected back into the community in areas such as farming and ­infrastructure.

It would also see materials which are transported and sold overseas recycled at a higher quality, and minimise the risk of dangerous stockpiles.

“We want all of those materials to go somewhere,” Ms McNamara said.

“Glass can be made into new glass bottles, plastic can be made into roads or railway sleepers or new plastic, and compost can be taken to a composting facility and from there trucked out to farms to grow more food.

“We estimate that investment could allow us to essentially reap $1.2 billion every year from a $1 billion investment,” she said.

“That’s why we’re calling for this level of investment.”

Victoria would need to boost its recycling capacity by more than three million tonnes by 2039 to meet targets and deal with issues of stockpiling and illegal dumping.

Infrastructure Victoria CEO Michel Masson said Victoria could create a “world-class” recycling system in the next two decades.

“We need to use less, recycle more, and collect our waste smarter so that we are recovering its value and not relying on export markets to deal with our waste,” Mr Masson said.

MORE NEWS

[e-mail]