Local recycling waste will go to landfill after the company handling the material “temporarily” closed its Geelong site today, City Hall has announced.
SKM Recycling closed the facility at 5pm after reaching “maximum storage capacity”, a City Hall statement said.
“There has been an increased stockpiling of plastics at this site since the temporary closure of SKM Laverton, where Geelong’s plastic recyclables are usually sent for processing,” the statement said.
“EPA Victoria issued SKM Laverton with a notice to stop accepting materials last Friday due to non-compliance with stockpile regulations.
“The City of Greater Geelong’s kerbside waste and recycling collection program will continue, with all bins to be collected as usual.
“As an interim measure, recyclable materials will be sent to landfill until SKM Laverton is able to receive materials again.
City Hall expected normal recycling to resume with SKM Geelong in “coming weeks”, the statement said.
“While most collection trucks will continue to separate recycling and waste, some trucks on rural routes may be required to temporarily consolidate waste and recycling.”
Council’s city services director urged residents to “continue sorting their household waste and recycling correctly”.
“SKM Recycling (is) working with EPA Victoria to achieve compliance and resume processing recycling as quickly as possible,” Guy Wilson-Browne said..
“It is more important than ever to dispose of your waste and recycling responsibly and where possible, reduce your overall waste as much as possible.
“While this is an unfortunate situation, protecting community health and safety is the number-one priority.”
SKM’s local closure comes a day after a local newspaper report that the company would continue receiving recycling waste “despite a looking kerbside crisis”
Australian recyclers have been struggling to manage growing waste piles since China stopped importing recyclable materials last year.
Other Victorian collection companies and sites have also stopped accepting recycling, forcing client councils to dump the waste in landfills.
