Industry Warns Australia’s Waste Export Ban Destined to Fail

Representatives from Australia’s waste and recycling industry are warning officials that Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s plan to implement a recycled waste export ban will fail unless it is backed with “hundreds of millions of dollars in funding and a requirement that public agencies use recycled material,” The Guardian reports.

According to the report, industry representatives expressed their concern over a draft plan that failed to include policies or funding to help develop a local industry to process materials that would no longer be exported. They also raised concerns over “an apparent lack of action.”

Australia had recently set its timeframe to ban the recyclable waste it exports to other countries, with a phase-out of the expensive practice beginning in July next year. Under the plan, from July 2020, glass waste will be banned for export, followed by mixed waste plastics the following year and tires in December 2021. All remaining waste products, including mixed paper and cardboard, will be banned no later than June 30, 2022.

The Guardian has more:

Environment ministers have been told Scott Morrison’s promise to introduce a waste export ban is doomed to fail unless they change tack and back it with hundreds of millions of dollars in funding and a requirement that public agencies use recycled material.

Federal, state and territory environment ministers meet on Friday in Adelaide, where they are due to announce a timetable to end the export of waste plastic, paper, glass and tyres. The prime minister has said he expected the ban to start next year.

The Queensland government announced ahead of the meeting that it planned to ban the supply of many single-use plastics, including straws, stirrers, plates and cutlery.

Read the full story here.