by Luke Voogt
Victoria’s waste crisis is set to continue another five weeks after costing Geelong’s council about $324,000 to dump recycling in landfill so far.
State Government on Tuesday announced a $10 million loan for the receivers of troubled recycler SKM, which went into liquidation this month.
“This loan is the fastest way of getting recyclable materials sent to processing sites instead of landfill,” Environment Minister Lily D’Ambrosio said.
The loan would help clear stockpiles, beginning at SKM’s Laverton depot this week, and fund essential maintenance, government announced.
Processing at Laverton would begin within five weeks with “further work” required to bring SKM’s other sites including its South Geelong depot “online”, government predicted.
City Hall’s services director Guy Wilson-Browne said Geelong recycling would continue to go to landfill “in the short term”.
Diverting recycling to landfill had cost council an extra $324,000 this year, including $176,000 in levies, at about $129,500 per fortnight, he said.
In March Mr Wilson-Browne said council would recoup costs from SKM under their contractual agreement.
But last Friday he declined to confirm council could still recover costs from SKM, which owes an estimated $100 million to creditors and employees.
“Contractual matters will be determined through the receivership process,” he said.
Earlier this month State Government announced $6.6 million for councils affected by SKM’s closure including a rebate on the landfill levy “so councils are not out of pocket”.
Government also announced plans for a major overhaul of kerbside collection that could include additional household bins beginning in 2021.
City Hall was investigating its own methods to separate materials locally, Mr Wilson-Browne said.
“Demand for co-mingled recyclable materials is very low in comparison to sorted steel, aluminium, paper, cardboard and plastic.”
City hall was considering solutions to implement next month including ratepayers sorting their recycling and taking it to local recovery hubs.
Other options included using yellow bins for only paper and cardboard, which make up about 40 per cent of recycling.
Mr Wilson-Browne requested residents only put out their recycling bins out if full and buy less packaging.
State Government could release some of more than $500 million collected in landfill levies to councils for local solutions, Mr Wilson-Browne said.
Government could also introduce a container deposit scheme or increase funding to recovery centres, he said.
State Government on Tuesday said it had invested more than $141 million in Victoria’s waste and resource recovery industry.
