Waste export bans to see glass cracked first

A phased export ban on glass, paper, plastic and tyre products will begin in July next year.

The waste export ban aims to limit the amount of waste in the oceans.

A phased export ban on glass, paper, plastic and tyre products will begin in July next year, ­according to a draft timeline agreed to by environment ­ministers.

Scott Morrison has championed the ban as part of his push to limit the amount of waste in the oceans, with an August meeting of the Council of Australian Governments tasking ­environment ministers with thrashing out an achievable timeline for the crackdown.

According to a deal finalised on Friday, glass waste exports will be phased out by July next year, with mixed plastics to follow in July 2021.

The ban on tyres will come into force in December 2021, while remaining waste products, including mixed paper and cardboard, will be phased out by no later than July 2022.

Environment Minister Sussan Ley said she had “landed the timetable” following a meeting with state and territory counterparts in Adelaide.

“The next steps are: how do we do it?” she said. “What happens across our jurisdictions to bring this to life and make sure that we create that general re­manufacturing circular economy in Australia across all of the waste streams?”

The Coalition was forced to come up with a new way to deal with Australia’s waste after China imposed a ban on waste imports last year, followed by Malaysia. Indonesia also ­recently sent back containers of plastic waste to Australia.

In August, the Prime Minister said he was making a $20m commitment to help grow the domestic recycling industry and achieve higher recycling rates. He cited figures suggesting that only 12 per cent of the 103kg of plastic waste generated per person in Australia each year was recycled, mostly overseas.

State and territory environment ministers also created new targets on Friday in a bid to improve local recycling, including the recovery of 80 per cent of materials across all waste types.

The deal said there would be “significant increases” to the use of recycled materials by government and a halving of the amount of organic waste sent to landfill.

“All ministers have committed to identifying any significant procurement opportunities over coming months, such as major road projects that could use significant amounts of recycled ­material,” the communique said.

“The commonwealth agreed to take a leading role.

“The commonwealth government will prioritise work with states and territories and relevant industry and standards bodies to develop engineering specifications and standards to support the use of recycled materials in building, construction and infrastructure development, for use across all jurisdictions.”

Other issues on the agenda included eradicating feral cats and container deposit schemes.