Recycling crisis
Fear of thousands of cannibal mice helped sink a huge NSW recycling plant
Australia’s largest recycling plant was set to be built next to a crucial medical facility – and the potential impacts were dire.
- Angus Dalton
Latest
Despite ‘smell issues’, NSW plans to mandate household food scraps collection
Australia is unlikely to meet national goals like halving the amount of organic waste going to landfill by 2030. But efforts are stepping up.
- Caitlin Fitzsimmons
‘Like Armageddon’: Impact of toxic SKM rubbish blaze laid bare
Those who lived and worked near the massive 2017 fire at the recycling facility in Melbourne’s north told a court how it had left their lungs burning and the ground covered in smouldering ash.
- Sarah Danckert
- Exclusive
- Recycling
The secret facility extracting gold from electronic waste
Metallurgists are extracting gold, silver and copper as they hunt through your e-waste for precious metals.
- Caitlin Fitzsimmons
- Exclusive
- Plastic
How the NSW plastic strategy could change your daily takeaway coffee
Forcing cafes to accept reusable cups, banning the release of helium balloons and phasing out plastic lollipop sticks are among ideas the government is considering.
- Caitlin Fitzsimmons
‘Insidious pollutant’: The microplastic hotspots in Sydney Harbour revealed
Manly Cove is one of the worst hotspots in Australia, with every square metre of sand containing more than a thousand tiny particles of plastic.
- Caitlin Fitzsimmons
‘We can no longer limp along’: Plans for plastic packaging shakeup
More than a year after the collapse of REDcycle, Australian industry and government can’t agree on how to collect our sea of soft plastics, let alone what to do with it.
- Bianca Hall and Caitlin Fitzsimmons
- Exclusive
- Recycling
Big business calls on government to police tide of plastic packaging
The companies behind Australia’s biggest consumer brands are calling for regulation of recycling and packaging to ensure consistency between the states and territories, and ensure laggards don’t benefit from cheaper costs.
- Caitlin Fitzsimmons
‘A lucrative business’: Why 730 tonnes of tyres have been seized in Australia in the past year
Illegal exports of Australia’s waste, including tyres, are in high demand by international manufacturers, to create fuel oil for further plastics manufacturing.
- Amber Schultz
‘I’ve still got my mother-in-law’s Mixmaster’: Inside Sydney’s dying breed of repair shops
As tinkers and cobblers dwindle in number, and goods are easier to replace than repair, some businesses are bucking the trend.
- Julie Power
Original URL: https://www.smh.com.au/topic/recycling-crisis-1n4t