Three major waste sector projects are among the first tranche of fast-tracked approvals under the New South Wales government’s new Planning System Acceleration Program, a scheme designed to provide an economic boost during the COVID-19 crisis.
On the South Coast, the extension to an existing putrescible landfill at the Shoalhaven City Council-owned West Nowra Recycling and Waste Facility will include six additional landfill cells. The $19.1 million project is expected to create 28 jobs.
In the City of Sydney, Visy Industries Australia received approval for the establishment of the $23.8 million Visy Dry Recyclables Facility in Alexandria for receipt and processing of up to 155,000 tonnes per year of dry recyclable waste from fully co-mingled and source separated kerbside collections.
The government also signed off on the construction and operation of the Penrith Resource Recovery Facility, which will have a capacity of up to 180,000 tonnes per annum of general solid (non-putrescible waste), including pre-classified waste types, including sorting, storage and dispatch of materials to other facilities.
ACOR: COVID consumption changes causing new plastics problems
Australian Council of Recycling (ACOR), the peak national body for the recycling sector, says urgent action is needed to manage the additional volumes of plastic waste generated by Australians during the CODVID-19 shutdown.
“As people are staying at home more, there are exceptionally high levels of soft plastic going through the system. This includes items like fresh food packaging, biscuit wrappers, pasta and bread bags, some ready-to-eat meal packaging, the wrapping around paper towels and toilet paper, postal and delivery sacks, and plastic shopping bags. Regretfully, too much of this soft plastic is ending up where it does not belong – the kerbside recycling bin – and that spoils our good recycling efforts as a country,” says ACOR CEO Pete Shmigel.
In the last two months, householder kerbside recycling volumes and waste volumes are up by more than 10 per cent and contamination of kerbside recycling is at unprecedented levels in some locations, especially from soft plastics.
Recycling from business sites is down by more than 20 per cent, which impacts on the overall viability of the industry. Industrial orders for recycled content plastic resin are significantly down, while export markets for Australian recyclates fell by 35 per cent in one month from December to January.
Shmigel says that the COVID-19 pandemic’s impacts on the recycling sector means that the national target of 70 per cent of plastic packaging being recycled by 2025 will unlikely by met on time.
“We need change at both the supply and demand ends: behavioural changes from Australians to get it right at the kerbside and to return soft plastics to supermarkets, and policy changes from governments.”