Greens secure Senate Inquiry into Australia's recycling industry

The Australian Greens yesterday secured an inquiry into the future of Australia’s recycling industry — an inquiry which is the culmination of many years of frustration, particularly with the landfill price disparity and its subsequent impact on the industry.

Senator Peter Whish-Wilson, Greens spokesperson for waste and recycling, said he “pushed to establish this inquiry to see into how we can put the recycling industry back on a sustainable footing”. He noted that he had been “pursuing these issues in the recycling industry for years, but the recent Four Corners episode has really brought the crisis out into the open”.

“Recycling was the first true green industry,” Whish-Wilson stated, “and we have to make sure the sector grows and is healthy.

“Of course we need to highlight the bad operators, and this inquiry will help with that, but we also need to identify what can to be done to keep the good operators going.”

Whish-Wilson claimed that the federal government has been missing in action, failing to act on a situation that is seeing waste streams build up in paddocks and warehouses. “I am hoping that the committee will look closely at what the federal government should be doing to deal with the crisis in the industry,” he said.

The Waste Management Association of Australia (WMAA) has voiced its support for the inquiry, with CEO Gayle Sloan calling it “a great opportunity to create more federal discussion about the actions we can take to ensure this sector is able to provide even better services to the people of Australia”.

“We support and endorse this inquiry into illegal dumping,” said Sloan. “WMAA welcome efforts to establish a level playing field and ensure the legitimate business practices of the many are not undermined by illegal activity of a few.

“WMAA wants to see the federal government taking a more active stand and scrutinise what is going on in the recycling industry. There are too many examples of loopholes that we all know need to be closed, but which clearly have not been fully addressed by each state jurisdiction working in isolation.”

WMAA will continue working with industry to lift standards for the better, taking an integrated approach which includes harmonised state waste policies. Sloan said the association is in “full support of harmonisation of the industry at a federal level”.