Daniel Andrews in $100m boost for recycling

Premier Daniel Andrews has announced almost $100 million to reboot Victoria’s problem-plagued recycling industry.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews.

Premier Daniel Andrews has ­announced almost $100m to ­reboot Victoria’s problem-plagued recycling industry.

The funding comes after Victoria on Tuesday became the first state in Australia to introduce a fourth recycling bin as part of a $129m scheme, and the last state to adopt a container ­deposit scheme.

It follows China’s refusal to continue taking Victoria’s recycling, and a crisis that has seen tens of thousands of tonnes of recycling sent to landfill, as well as toxic fires on sites where waste was being illegally stockpiled.

Mr Andrews said the $96.5m package would help create sustainable industries and 3900 jobs. The funding includes a $28m boost to the Recycling Victoria infrastructure fund — a doubling of funding put forward in the last budget — to create a $56m pool to which businesses can apply for grants to invest in infrastructure to sort and process recyclables for use in manufacturing.

A further $30m will be available in grants for the creation of new products made from recycled materials, while $10m will go towards helping businesses reduce waste and increase recycling in their daily operations.

The government has allocated $7m for a business innovation centre designed to bring together industry, universities and councils to develop technologies and collaborate on methods of reusing waste, with $10m to be made available for waste-to-­energy initiatives and $11.5m for treating hazardous waste.

Mr Andrews said he could not rule out “that there may be some increases” to council rates.